Kaine Vows To Lead The Charge To Lower College Costs And Student Debt

We are living in a very real college debt crisis. Americans owe more than $1.2 trillion in student loan debt. This is taking a huge toll on millions of lives across the country.

According to Demos, a public policy organization, 80 percent of black students are borrowing money for college. Compare that to the two-thirds of white students who do. Black students are also taking out higher loans than whites.

Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst for Demos, on the issue:

“We’re burdening those who have the fewest means to begin with.” 

The college debt crisis doesn’t stop there. We are now spending more money on student loans than our own groceries every month.

And it’s not just the younger generations who are suffering.

Senior citizens are losing out on their Social Security checks thanks to their student loans. According to the Government Accountability Office, between the years 2002 and 2013, the number of senior citizens losing a portion of this income due to student loans went up a staggering 500 percent from 6,000 to 36,000.

Something needs to change.

Enter Tim Kaine

Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate for the 2016 presidential election, has always been a large proponent for higher education. As the former governor of Virginia and in his current role as senator, he has been instrumental in passing bills attempting to solve our education problems.

Kaine has the perfect background to tackle these issues. Outside of government work, he spent time teaching at the University of Richmond for both their law school and their Jepson School for Leadership Studies.

While in the Senate, Kaine co-founded the Career and Technical Education Caucus with Rob Portman. He has also worked to update the Apprenticeship and Jobs Training Act of 2015. This act hopes to bring training and education opportunities for young people to learn valuable skills for a competitive workforce.

His wife, Anne Holton, is currently Virginia’s Secretary of Education. She is also the former program director for Great Expectations, a program that helps young people in foster care get access to higher education.

The Income Test

When it comes to the pressing matter of student debt, Kaine has agreed with Clinton that there should be an income test to determine cost of education. This differs from the views of Bernie Sanders, who is pushing for free education for all.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Kaine said we have a fiscal responsibility to not hand everyone free education:

“Richer Americans, or even Americans like myself who have a plan to help their children with the cost of college, perhaps shouldn’t have free access to college or get the same degree of help when there are so many young people who have worked hard but simply can’t afford the cost of higher education and their parents do not have the financial means to help. Those are the students who we should focus on helping.”

Allowing for those with lower incomes to gain a college education is invaluable. It will ultimately benefit our country by producing hard-working, passionate citizens who will lead the generations to come.

Bringing along her own massive education background, Clinton will work with Kaine to finally solve this trillion dollar crisis affecting the economy and the lives of those living within it. There may not be a team more qualified to do so.

Nicole is a recent graduate of Hope College, where she spent her senior year as Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Anchor student newspaper. She has passions for journalism, documentary filmmaking and photography. She is also fundamentally opposed to the Oxford comma. Nicole is currently taking a gap year before pursuing a master's degree in journalism.