Obama’s College Promises

[Geee]

National Review:

The Obama campaign has a message for young-adult voters: When it comes to higher education, the president will dole out taxpayer dollars and “free stuff” at the rate Joe Biden makes gaffes.

When Mitt Romney was campaigning in Ohio on Monday, he offered a different approach.

Romney explained the president’s strategy thus: “In an effort to try to get them engaged, he’s going to promise to give a lot of free stuff to them. And say, ‘I’ll pay for your education,’ or ‘I’ll get rid of the loans.’”

“I’m only guessing, but my expectation is that he’s going to find — as politicians do — promises of free stuff are a way to get people to vote for him,” Romney added.

Tuesday morning, the Obama campaign fired back. “[Romney] equated the president’s support for keeping the interest rate on student loan rates low with giving away ‘free stuff’ — an assertion that millions of hard-working students would likely contest,” said Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith in a statement. “These out-of-touch comments come after Romney told students struggling with the cost of tuition that their only answers were to ‘shop around’ for lower prices and ask their parents to lend them money . . . and endorsed the Ryan budget, which would cut Pell Grants and let the student-loan interest rate double.”

Advertisement

Smith’s assertion is inaccurate; according to reports of the event, Romney didn’t directly mention Obama’s current push to prevent interest rates from doubling. Furthermore, Romney has previously stated that he supports keeping the rates at 3.4 percent for another year, rather than letting them rise to 6.8 percent as scheduled.

But it’s true that when it comes to subsidizing students’ college educations, Romney and Obama sharply diverge. Obama is making college affordability — via increased government subsidies — a cornerstone of his campaign.

Obama proposes to do that by continuing to increase the number of students eligible for Pell Grants, which give students up to $5,550 for college costs per year. (The number of students eligible for Pell Grants has increased from 6 million in 2008 to 9 million today.) He created the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which gives families making up to $80,000 a year a tax credit of up to $2,500 a year for college expenses. On the student-loan front, he signed a law allowing graduates to pay no more than 10 percent of their income toward federal student loans at a given time, regardless of how much they owe. And if they haven’t paid back the full amount after 20 years of working? The remainder is forgiven.

[NCTexan]

Getting an education that leads to a well thought out career and the costs of a school are the last considerations for many, if not most kids.

 

Image, cool, friends, status, fun, location, sports, etc. are prime reasons for too many.