Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who runs on a platform emphasizing a wide range of issues, has spent the majority of the pre-primary campaign trying to make a name for himself, but really has only set himself apart from the other candidates on the issue of higher education reform.

With so many candidates speaking heavily on the same few issues such as gun control, tax rates, immigration, and the Universal Health Care Act, it is the task of the individual candidate to find a way to stand out.

Senator Rubio largely toes the party line when it comes to hot topic matters of State, like immigration reform or repealing the Universal Health Care Act. And while the presidential hopeful doesn’t differ from his fellow candidates on issues such as expanding the military budget and lowering taxes in many states, he is uniquely vocal when it comes to higher education reform.

Rubio’s platform showcases his desire to make the federal financial aid application more streamlined and efficient and to fix a broken system that leaves so many young adults drowning in debt, according to the Senator’s campaign website.

In the United States today the average student will have to pay back a little more than $35,000 in student loans, according to an analysis of government data by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher at Edvisors.

The democratic candidates have been very vocal on this issue thus far. During the second democratic debate Bernie Sanders suggested a plan that would make all public colleges tuition free. 

Similarly, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley have included Higher Education Reform in their platforms.

Of the fourteen Republican candidates on the primary ballot, Marco Rubio is the only one presenting a decisive plan for how to reform our higher education system, and this difference is not going unnoticed by students.

Abbey Wise, a freshman at UNC-Wilmington identifies as a Democrat on most issues but states that, “The fact that Rubio recognizes the extreme debt students have to take on today makes him the most relatable of the candidates running for the Republican nomination.”

It is important to note that Rubio himself had to take on over $100,000 of student loan debt to put himself through his undergraduate degree at the University of Florida and then law school at the University of Miami, according to Rob Wile of Fusion.com.

The senator’s plan to combat the issue of high student loan debt centers on a few key ideas outlined in an interview with Senator Rubio’s Deputy Press Secretary Kristen Morrell.

Morrell draws attention to the fact that this issue has been important to Rubio even before the election was underway, citing a speech he gave in February of 2014.

In his speech to the students of Miami-Dade College, Rubio stated that the skyrocketing tuition rates over the last decade are unacceptable and detrimental to the people that a higher education would benefit the most.

As the Senator explains on his campaign website, he believes that education should be eligible for tax deductions and that the process of receiving government aid should be more accessible to all.