On Monday, Hillary Clinton rolled out her proposal to make college more affordable, which aims to allow students to pursue a “loan-free” education at public colleges and universities. The plan, which offers federal incentives to states which guarantee their students a debt-free education, is hideously complex. It also does not address the central problems in America’s higher-education system.

In contrast, Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate from Florida, has sponsored a number of bills that would enable students to take advantage of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), publicize information about graduation rates and potential earnings at different institutions, and make it easier for individual lenders to invest in students so that they would be able to avoid taking out college loans.

Clinton proposes to offer states $175 billion in grants in exchange for the no-loans promise. (The total cost of her plan is $350 billion.) Accepting the grants would require states to devote more of their budgets to higher education, which in theory would bring down tuition.

Read the full article at Economics21: Rubio's Higher-Ed Plan Beats Clinton's