As the 2016 landscape gets formed, likely presidential candidate Martin Oai??i??Malley endorsed debt-free college last Friday in anAi??op-ed and a national email to supporters, where he declared, “Our ultimate goal should be simple: every student should be able to go to collegeAi??debt-free.” Check out his email below.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:Ai??Martin O’MalleyAi??<info@martinomalley.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 9:35 AM
Subject: Debt free college

Sounds like a pipe dream? It shouldn’t be.

When my dad returned home from flying a B-24 Liberator in WWII, the GI bill was what enabled him to go to school, open a law practice, and support a family.

Today, our kids arenai??i??t getting the same bargain that my dad did.

The majority of students are graduating with significant debt. This is debt big enough for the down payment on a new house. And instead of buying a house or starting a business, recent graduates are struggling not to default on their student loans.

It’s outrageous that we can figure out a way to bail out big banks, but we can’t figure out a way to make college affordable.

In Maryland, we saw this trend, and we refused to give up.Ai??We froze tuition at public four-year institutions, invested in higher education and financial aid, and took steps to make sure our high school students were graduating with a degree thatai??i??s already worth something.

Now it’s time, as a country, that we do even more.Ai??Our ultimate goal should be simple: every student should be able to go to college debt-free.

Today, I’m offering some ideas to tackle this problem of student loan debt head-on.

We can make college affordable, and we can start by making sure our students …

Including:Ai??Senator Harry Reid, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Donna Edwards,Ai??Colorado Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, David Wellstone, Van Jones, Heather McGhee, Dean Baker
Former U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Ted Kaufman, Former House Majority Whip David Bonior, Former Iowa Democratic Chair Roxanne Conlin
Plus Nearly 200 Current and Former State Legislators, 24 Current and Former Members of Congress, Hundreds of Local Union Leaders

See Statement and 5,000 Signers, Sortable by State atAi??ReadyForBoldness.com.

Today, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is announcing over 5,000 Democratic leaders across the country have signed on to the ReadyForBoldness.com joint statement urging Hillary Clinton and all other potential Democratic presidential candidates to run on ai???big, bold, economic-populist ideasai??? such as debt-free college, expanding Social Security benefits, Wall Street reform, campaign finance reform, higher wages, and millions of clean-energy jobs.

Todayai??i??s announcement comes exactly two weeks after theAi??New York TimesAi??and others reported that 200 Iowa and New Hampshire political leaders launched ReadyForBoldness.com with the PCCC, including former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin.

PollingAi??from the Progressive Change Institute shows that ideas in todayai??i??s statement are popular with voters of all political stripes.

In addition to building national momentum for the joint statement, the PCCCai??i??sAi??Ready For BoldnessAi??campaign is recruiting volunteers in early primary states to attend campaign events and ask candidates whether they support economic-populist ideas.

QUOTES:

“Being bold is the only way I’ve ever known how to win.”Ai??— U.S. Senator Harry Reid, D-NV, Senate Democratic Leader

ai???ReadyForBoldness.com is a big tent with 5,000 political leaders who support Hillary Clinton, other potential candidates, or nobody — all saying together that the best way for Democrats to win in 2016 is by campaigning on big, bold, economic-populist ideas that are popular with voters.ai???Ai??— Adam Green, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder

“The American people deserve …