Education Costs, Health Care Will Likely Sway Youth Vote

By Adrianna McGinley

Youth leaders and policy experts cited rising costs in education, health care, child care, and housing as key issues for winning the young vote in 2012.

The discussion at the Center for American Progress was based on a recent report from the think tank Demos and the Young Invincibles entitled “The State of Young America”.

Heather McGhee, Demos’ Washington office Director, noted the report shows that while college tuition has tripled over the last few decades, federal aid has been cut in half. A maximum pell grant that she said covered 69 percent of costs in 1980, today only covers 34 percent. She added that in 2010 the amount of student debt surpassed that of credit card debt and 76 percent of participants in the study reported it has become harder in the last five years to afford college.

McGhee said these numbers make young people “more oriented towards public solutions, more willing to pay higher taxes for higher degrees of service from the government than any generation since the depression generation.”

Aaron Smith, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Young Invincibles, said Congress has the power to help youth but only if they make their voices heard. Smith cited Obama’s Affordable Care Act as “an example of how Congress can really step up to the plate and address one of these big long-term challenges,” and added it would be a grave mistake for Congress to repeal it in 2012.

“Going backwards is obviously, I think, exactly the wrong move…we’re going to be doing more work in the Fall to educate young people about what the health care law actually means for them,” Smith said. “Once you have the education I think then you’re prepared to sort of become an advocate, to tell your story, to explain ‘yes…I’m a young person, but healthcare really does matter to my life,’ and we found that when those stories are told, it can be quite powerful and change the political debate.”

The panel also touched on immigration issues.

Eduardo Garcia, Advocacy Associate for Campus Progress, said the 2012 election will depend on how the administration continues to deal with the undocumented population.

“Young people are very much feeling the impacts of some of the harmful deportation policies that the administration has adopted, and I think that it’s especially hurtful because many of those folks turned out in 2008 to get this president elected.”

The panel cited immigration reform as a possible key to economic recovery as well, saying that while 54 percent of all young adults have or want to start a business, that rate for minority youth is over 60 percent.

Ronnie Cho, White House Liaison to Young Americans and Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement, said it is up to youth to make their voices heard.

“It is incumbent upon ourselves to really assert ourselves, not ask for an invitation to be a part of the discussion, because that’s simply not going to happen and it hasn’t happened…that’s why the discussion hasn’t been around how this affects young people,” Cho said. “It is our time to emerge as this force to be reckoned with.”

McGhee added that while young voters need to stand up, the federal government must continue to protect voters rights, citing that in 2010, 31 states passed voter ID laws that could inhibit youth from voting since over a third of 18 year olds do not have a federally issued ID.

Education Reps Defend Federal Financial Aid To College Students

By Adrianna McGinley

Higher education representatives defended federal financial aid programs Wednesday before members of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.

Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation for Education, told lawmakers that federal financial aid is a necessary “bedrock” for students, specifically those from low-income households, and said it is in the nation’s best interest to sustain it.

“The challenge is that students and families really are at their limit in terms of their capacity in order to be able to deal with these issues… We can’t afford to reduce the capacity of the system to produce graduates,” Merisotis said. “It is very important to our economic future as a country that we increase the number of highly qualified college graduates in this country.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said she disagreed with the claim that there is a need for more federal aid, citing that with three-fourths of all student aid last year coming from the federal government, many students continue to drown in debt.

“Despite this tremendous taxpayer investment, millions of Americans are still struggling with significant student loan debt burdens,” Foxx said. “Clearly, the rise in the cost of higher education in the United States is a problem, but the answer cannot be found in loan forgiveness gimmicks or a federal takeover of the student loan industry.”

Foxx argued that it would be more beneficial for lawmakers to encourage accountability and for students and parents to “educate themselves about the true costs of attending college.”

Tim Foster, President of Colorado Mesa University, said that, despite the success his university has had in cutting costs and increasing transparency, there is a fine line to walk when balancing the two.

“There’s this two-edged coin, which is affordability and quality,” Foster said. “If we slash quality, I don’t care how affordable it is, if it’s not worth experiencing, then it’s not worth spending time and money on, and the reverse, if it’s high quality and you can’t afford it then obviously it’s absolutely meaningless.”

Jane Wellman, Executive Director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity, and Accountability, said there may be a silver lining to the squeeze universities are facing.

“The good thing about this recession has been that we finally, I think, are starting to hit the wall…Institutions have too long believed that more money always was necessary for more quality,” Wellman said. “I think we’re turning the corner.”