Millennials can’t seem to catch a break: like the job market for recent graduates isn’t bad enough, more than two-thirds of all college graduates are now leaving college as debtors–a total sum the New York Times recently pegged at almost $1 trillion. It’s little wonder then that an entire generation is following debate in Congress over the interest rate on federal student loans.
Cynical politicians, particularly of the liberal variety, are quick to make student loan rates an election-year issue and it’s easy to understand why: President Obama rode to victory in 2008 on a wave of support from young voters. Polls show that age cohort, while still supportive, is much less enthusiastic about Obama’s candidacy this year, and for good reason.
Enter Tim Kaine. Yesterday, Chairman Kaine’s campaign launched a coordinated attack with the DPVA and the Young Democrats to put Gov. Allen on the defensive over student loan rates. The problem with Kaine’s stone-throwing is that he lives in a glass house: had it not been for his higher-ed policies as governor, Virginia’s public college/university students wouldn’t have needed to borrow as much money.
During the Kaine Administration, tuition in Virginia’s public college system rose 30 percent, this at the same time that the Democrat-controlled 109th Congress set the interest rate on federal student loans at an artificially low rate (lower than the going market rate), thus giving students more of an incentive to choose federal loans.
Contrast that to Gov. Allen’s record as governor: not only did Allen–with the assistance of a Democrat-controlled General Assembly–put the brakes on skyrocketing tuition, he also capped tuition. Beyond that, though, Gov. Allen is also responsible for the Commonwealth’s wildly popular 529 college saving plan.
The varied approaches taken by Govs. Kaine and Allen reveals three things: Chairman Kaine cynically believes that Virginians won’t take the time to learn the truth about his record, he’s still sharing a playbook with President Obama and Kaine’s, unlike Allen’s, default position is to charge more money for a service. Rather than saying “enough with the tuition hikes!” or looking for ways to help families save for college years in advance like Gov. Allen did, Chairman Kaine oversaw a 30 percent tuition increase. Millennials are now stuck holding the bag and Chairman Kaine is hoping they won’t remember who’s ultimately responsible for having to take out those massive loans in the first place. Classic. I guess Chairman Kaine really is reading off the Obama playbook: “When everything you touch turns out wrong, just blame George.”
