Obama won 66 percent of the youth vote in 2008, but Obama’s poll numbers haven’t reached that high among younger voters this year. A JZ Analytics poll released last week shows 49 percent of likely voters ages 18 to 29 favor Obama while 41 percent back Romney. The poll was the first time Romney’s numbers went over 40 percent with the young demographic.
Obama made his case Tuesday that he has a plan to make higher education more affordable. He also criticized Romney saying that the Republican candidate is not prioritizing higher education and the budget plan proposed last year by Ryan would cut education.
The Romney campaign hit the president Tuesday for increasing tuition costs across the nation and unemployment, calling the Obama’s reforms a Band-Aid on a larger spending problem.
Obama attacked Romney for remarks made on past Ohio stops. Romney encouraged college students in April to borrow money from their parents to start a business. When asked in Youngstown how he would make college more affordable, Romney said students should “shop around.”
“I don’t accept the notion we should deny any child the opportunity to get a higher education if they’ve been working hard, if they have the grades, if they have the determination to get a better future for themselves,” Obama said. “I don’t want them to be prevented just because their families were hit hard by a recession.”
In an outdoor speech to 3,300 people, Obama said his administration helped more than 3 million additional students afford a college education.
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, said the president should be focusing on curbing spending and creating jobs.
“People in school now are worried not only about their debt but the nation’s debt and how they’re going to get a job,” Turner said. “The president is highlighting government spending because he has no plan or program to get the economy moving.”
What do local students and parents think?
Lisa Arlt, of Springboro, said she and her husband are looking for extra work to pay for their daughter’s education at Indiana Wesleyan University. Tuition, room and board there total about $25,000 a year.
“We’re just trying to get it out of pocket, plus these unsubsidized loans,” she said. “It’s definitely keeping me working a lot, like a little hamster on a wheel. We just have tightened up discretionary spending.”
Arlt hopes to help her daughter, Haley, with the loan payment after graduation.
Ohio enrolls more college students than most of the U.S. Ohio ranks seventh nationwide in average debt for students and the proportion of students with debt, according to The Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit research and policy organization that examines college costs.
Crystal Graves, a 19-year-old computer networking student at Clark State Community College, said many students she knows depend on federal aid programs to fund their educations.
“Without the Pell grant, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Graves said. “I wouldn’t be able to go to college and get a degree, and that’s pretty much forcing me to work for minimum wage my whole life.”
Lauren Altenburger, a Troy native, saved about $40,000 in tuition, room and board and fees by earning two associate degrees at Edison Community College in Piqua while in high school and enrolling at Ohio State University as a junior. Altenburger today begins a five-year Ph.D. program at Ohio State but won’t pay tuition this year thanks to a university fellowship.
“I know that’s not the case for other students,” she said.
Altenburger said she feels confident she will be able to get a job after graduation but said she will pursue a post-doctorate program if she cannot find employment.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor reported the unemployment rate for 16- to -24-year-olds was 16.4 percent in July, nearly twice the national rate of 8.3 percent and up from 16 percent at the beginning of the year.
“With the job market, it’s just becoming a prerequisite to have a bachelor’s degree,” Altenburger said.
Kathryn Landers is a Miami University senior who is majoring in history of art and architecture,
“Overall, college education has become overpriced. People are graduating with incredible amounts of debt. Something has to change, but I’m not sure what or which candidate would be the best for that.”
The average tuition at a four-year public university increased 15 percent from 2008 to 2010, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Tuition, fees, room, and board cost, on average, $32,026 at private colleges and $13,564 for in-state students at public colleges in 2010-11.
About half of younger Americans are employed in fields that utilize their degrees, according to a Pew Research Center study. Pew also found 75 percent of Americans say higher education is financially out of reach for most of the nation — yet 94 percent of parents expect their child to attend college.
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