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April 25, 2012

Bipartisan War on the Young

With the general election heating up, Obama is on the campaign trail this week. Perhaps he heard the news that his popularity is dwindling among the young, as his tour is making stops at large colleges in swing states. And on this college tour, the president delivered a message calculated to resonate with young voters: He mentioned a bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has introduced that would extend for another year an interest rate cut for subsidized student loans, which are otherwise scheduled to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent in July.

Romney appears to be following suit, matching Obama’s calls for Congress to freeze interest rate increases for student loans. And Senate Republicans agree: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell voiced support for the extension, although he took issue with Democratic plans to pay for the bill through higher taxes on businesses. For all the talk of unprecedented political polarization, we may finally have found an issue on which both sides agree.

Unfortunately, both sides get incompletes. Today’s students need more than cheap student loans. Lower tuition and better job prospects are the two things today’s students need most. A big fat federal program to lower interest on student loans will have the opposite effect: removing incentives for colleges to lower tuition while encouraging students to go into more debt to finance degree programs that are increasingly divorced from practical application in the job market.

This is perhaps the greatest irony. In their attempts to court the youth vote ahead of the election, both parties are letting down the young, sacrificing the needs of future generations for short-term political gain.  But since that’s a pretty good description of the approach our political establishment brings to almost every question that comes up — why be surprised?

[Updated version]

Posted in Blue Social Model, Education, Election 2012, Obama, Politics, Quick Takes
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  • http://www.everymanblog.com Everyman

    More money to end up in the coffers of colleges and universities – and the pockets of administrators and faculty – so that the politicos get the credit and the votes while the students (and their parents), and the taxpayers pick up the entire tab.

    Win-win-lose. What’s not to like?

  • Walter Sobchak
  • Anthony

    “…a bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has introduced…Romney appears to be following suit, matching Obama’s calls….”

    WRM, Quick Take reads like political description highlighting politics of special favors, constituent groups, and ethos of buying votes via federal largesse. I concur there is definite irony: the schema fosters national constituency group interest to candidate/party at expense of both group (students) and country’s long term interests.

  • John Barker

    Is it really possible that our politicians are so callous and indifferent to the welfare of the nation’s young? Neither man is a fool. This is choosing politics over morality. How revolting.

  • Jessie

    “A big fat federal program to lower interest on student loans will have the opposite effect: removing incentives for colleges to lower tuition while encouraging students to go into more debt to finance degree programs that are increasingly divorced from practical application in the job market.”

    Well that’s one way of looking at it. A more obvious one would be to say that the reason I’m unemployed despite my doctorate in post-colonial eco-feminism is due to well entrenched white male privilege!

  • ms

    I agree that the country should not be subsidizing student loans this way, but the political reality is that it is probably best to go along with this right now. There is little doubt which party is going to bring some fiscal discipline to the country after the election, however. Let me give you a hint–it’s not the cool guy, it’s the competent one.

  • Kris

    “In their attempts to court the youth vote ahead of the election, both parties are letting down the young”

    And getting their votes.

    “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
    H. L. Mencken

  • RedWell

    Spare me the outrage. The government plays a minor role in fostering college debt. Rather, every parent for the last three or four generations — along with every leader — who said “get a college degree to improve your lot” is to blame. Anyone who supports a liberal education as important to forming reflective citizens is to blame.

    Higher ed needs to reign in its scandalously rising costs, but get real: Americans want access to higher ed. The government can help out, though I argue it should pay for MORE higher ed, or it should get out and force all higher ed institutions to compete as a private market. Just don’t be surprised if costs keep rising even without government subsidies, middling students are either left out in the cold or stuck with equal amounts of debt to pay for for-profit degrees, and poor students are left out altogether.