“Nobamas” have no solutions for college students

Megan Henry | Contributing Writer

 

The upcoming Presidential debate on October 3rd has both Democrat and Republican supporters discussing – or arguing- why their candidate will be the perceived winner. The 2008 presidential election inspired a record turnout of college-age voters, and this same faction will be tuning in to see what each candidate has to say regarding their policies on higher education and the job market for recent college graduates. 

In the meantime, young Republicans like Alex Schriver, chairman of the College Republican National Committee, are attacking Obama’s administration for failing to follow through with the policy goals that appealed to young, college-age voters during the last election.  Schriver goes so far as to state that Obama’s policies are the reason college grads are living at home with their parents while they look for work, and accuses the President of adding “trillions” of dollars to the national debt.

In reality, the money-saving, albeit annoying, tactic of moving back in with parents during the after-graduation job hunt is a practice that has been in existence for almost fifty years, (1967’s “The Graduate” depicts a young Dustin Hoffman living at home with his parents after graduating from college). Even young people that do land jobs immediately after graduating may still find themselves headed back to Mom and Dad’s house in order to take some much-needed time to save money for their own place.  While moving back in with parents may not be ideal, it is certainly not a recent phenomenon, and it is completely obtuse to point the finger at President Obama’s four years in office as the reason for this practice. 

In terms of Obama’s perceived policy failure, it is important to note that his term in office has faced a notoriously high amount of political deadlock between the Republican-ran House and Democrat controlled Senate. Despite this, President Obama has created the “Pay as You Earn” program, capping the amount of financial aid loan payments to 10% of individual monthly income. His economic stimulus package, considered by many to be a success, is the meat of the 1.4 trillion in national debt that has occurred during his presidency, but prevented unemployed from dropping to economic depression levels.

Unfortunately for young Republicans, it doesn’t appear that Republican candidate Mitt Romney has any policies that will support college graduates.  A look at Romney’s Education Issue webpage devotes an entire half a page to Obama’s “failed” policies, but only four sentences on Romney’s own plan for higher education reform.  His solutions for enacting his plan are listed in three bullet points. That’s right, three sentences severely lacking in specificity describe Romney’s “plan”, with no detailed account of what actions a Romney administration would take to lower the cost of higher education, or improve the job market for college graduates.

It’s easy to attack and accuse, but it’s harder for young “Nobamas” to back up their arguments with solid evidence that a Romney administration would do a better job of supporting college students.