Earlier this month, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) endorsed Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House, becoming the first major union to endorse a candidate for 2016.

The endorsement caused some controversy among other labor leaders who are planning to hold off announcing their endorsements until after July 30 when all of the Democratic candidates are interviewed by AFL-CIO.

AFT President Randi Weingarten is also known to be a longtime Clinton ally, and currently sits on the board of a super PAC supporting Clinton.

The union met with Clinton, along with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, in early June to discuss the candidates' positions on various education policies, including student debt, state divestment from public education, and transparency from for-profit institutions. The candidates' answers were published by the Washington Post.

Clinton voiced support for President Obama’s free community college proposal, and said she plans to introduce her own proposal to address rising costs for those attending four-year schools.

Both Clinton and O’Malley said they would help student borrowers refinance their loans and create a system of income-based repayment.

Bernie Sanders discussed his more extreme proposal to completely eliminate tuition at public colleges.

“I believe it is unfair and bad economic policy to force our young people to compete with workers from other countries who can pursue a higher education at little or no cost,” Sanders said. “This is why I introduced the College for All Act, which would create a federal-state partnership to eliminate undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities. In addition, this legislation would slash student loan interest rates, and allow borrowers to refinance their loans.”

All three Democrats agreed that state budget cuts are causing tuition costs to skyrocket at public universities, and said they would incentivize states to invest more in higher education.

AFT also questioned the candidates about the current debate over transparency of for-profit institutions. Many Democrats claim that for-profit schools mislead students about job placement and graduation rates, leaving them with debt they can't repay.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education announced it would forgive $3.5 billion in loans for students who attended Corinthian Colleges, after the college company was charged with fraud. On July 1, the Obama administration’s “gainful employment” law officially went into effect, cracking down on for-profit colleges that don’t meet government standards.

O’Malley said he supports efforts to forgive debt incurred by students who were “sold a bad deal” by a for-profit institution.

Sanders said he supports efforts to implement gainful employment, as well as “regulations requiring that no institution receives more than 85 percent of its revenue from federal sources.”

Clinton agreed that the government should cease funding colleges where students accumulate a lot of debt but can’t get jobs to repay their loans.