The DNC comes out with an ad hitting Romney on his empty solution to help college students with the problem that is student loans. Romney just isn’t unwilling to address the huge issue of growing fees for cash strapped college students … he along with his running mate Paul Ryan have called for huge cuts in Pell grants which would give financial assistance to less affluent college kids. (source)
In addition to supporting huge cuts in Pell grants, he has also pushed for the repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act which would force the government to pay big banks to handle 100% guaranteed loans. So – the American taxpayer would pay banks to give loans to students at higher rates than they could get from the government and if a student defaults on their debt … the American taxpayer has to pay the bank for the defaulted student loan. That’s called a sweet, sweet deal for the big banks.
I want to give you three choice quotes from Mitt Romney for you to understand what Romney thinks about helping to ease the debt burden for students.
“I feel that if you are willing to serve your country in the military for instance, that’s a place where we’re going to say, ‘Yeah, we’ll give you help.” (source)
and
“Don’t expect the government to forget the debt that you take on. Recognize that you have to pay it back…. If you can’t afford it – shop around.” (source)
and
“And I want to make sure that we keep America a place of opportunity, where everyone has a fair shot. They get as much education as they can afford and with their time they’re able to get” (source)
President Obama spoke in Columbus, Ohio today and discussed the important of college education – he went after Romney for some of the quotes above:
“That’s <Romney’s> answer to young people who are trying to figure out how to go to college and make sure that they don’t have a mountain of debt – shop around and borrow more money from your parents. Not everybody has parents who have the money to lend. That may be news to some folks, but it’s the truth.”
Most kids today do not understand that the financial reality they’re inheriting from their parents is very, very different from the financial reality their parents inherited. The increase in student tuition can be directly attributed to cuts in state funding for college tuition. I wrote a very thorough analysis on this HERE; an excerpt:
Well – for years we have been cutting education funding by federal, state and local governments and as colleges receive less in funding – they pass those costs directly on to the student. So unlike in the past with the selfish Baby Boomer generation that seems to forget all that it was given by the Greatest Generation…they tend not to want to pay for the costs of the Millennial generation just as their fathers paid for their generation. So now under the auspice of smaller government and lower taxes – students are paying significantly more than any other generation before it because the funding for higher education has fallen dramatically. This is going to affect the economy dramatically in a few ways:
#1 – Students who come out of college with 100k in debt are going to spend their excess money paying off debt…not buying new products which will create jobs and fuel the economy.
#2 – The high cost of college is now a barrier to entry for students. This is going to prove to be a deterrent to students achieving higher education and receive the necessary skills for a 21st Century economy.
There is the study from Stanford that showed, “Family income is now nearly as strong as parental education in predicting children’s achievement.” You can find that study HERE.
There is a study showing unintelligent students of privilege are more likely to complete college than poor, intelligent students. You can find that HERE.
I’ve written about the American Feudal Education System HERE.
We do know that liberal leaning states tend to have better social mobility. The truth HERE.
We know that charter schools are producing worse results than public schools. The truth HERE.
