Kay Hagan wants to increase federal spending on education.

The Democratic candidate for Senate unveiled her education plan Wednesday, calling for more money for No Child Left Behind, increasing spending on early childhood education and boosting tax credits for college.

She said she would pay for her education proposals by freezing the estate tax at its 2009 level, saying that will provide $175 billion over 10 years.

The tax is on a schedule to be repealed in 2010, though it could return the following year if Congress doesn't make the repeal permanent.

Hagan held a roundtable talk in Charlotte Wednesday with members of the historically black college community. (AP) 

Chelsea Clinton dived into specific programs her mother has proposed.

After a brief introduction at the Young Democrats convention today, the former first daughter began answering audience questions on a variety of topics.

She earned loud applause from the audience when she said that Hillary Clinton has proposed eliminating the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, which college applicants must fill out in order to receive college aid, in favor of a checkbox on your tax form.

Among other things, she said that Clinton would forgive student loans for people who work in public service jobs, create universal health insurance, end the war in Iraq, expand the AmeriCorps program, reinstate the estate tax for people with assets of more than $7 million, make school lunch programs available year-round, reform food stamps and tie the Earned Income Tax Credit to inflation.

In response to a question about seating the Florida and Michigan delegates, Clinton said that the former has an "unfortunate" history of not counting votes.

"I wish that I were standing here after seven years of President Gore," she said.