Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Georgia Students Back Hillary's Plan for More Affordable Classes, Expanded Financial Aid

ATLANTA, Georgia - Georgia students are backing Hillary Clinton for President in part because of her plans to make a college degree more affordable and accessible, and to give students the opportunity to have their college loans forgiven through community service.

"Traditionally, when students are trying to decide where to attend college, we first look at what school we want most, and then we try to figure out if we can afford it," explained Edmund Thornton, a junior at Kennesaw State University. "For many of us, without student loans and grants, we couldn't get our degrees. College needs to be more affordable."

Hillary Clinton has outlined a package of initiatives aimed at reducing the tuition burden on students and their families. At the heart of her proposals is a new tax credit that will cover more than 50 percent of the typical cost of public colleges and universities and more than the full cost of tuition for community colleges. She also wants to see the maximum Pell Grant award increased. Importantly, the Clinton plan would create new ways for students to have their loan debt forgiven while significantly cutting the confusing and convoluted financial aid application process.

"Higher education has never been more of a financial burden, but in today's global economy it's never been more important," Senator Clinton explained, noting that graduates from four-year colleges earn nearly twice as much as high school graduates, an estimated $1 million more over a lifetime. "Now, so many young people come out of college with debt and have to take jobs solely for the purpose of paying off their student loans. We've got to get back to the American tradition of making it possible for everyone who wants to go to college to actually go, graduate, get a good job, and build their own American dream."

In the past 25 years, the average cost of tuition and fees has risen faster than personal income, consumer prices and even health insurance. It has gone up 35 percent in the last five years alone. As a result, the average student graduates with $20,000 in debt and many students graduate with the equivalent of a mortgage in student loans.

Georgia students want to turn this backward situation around.

"We hear all the time that education is important. If it is so important, why is it so hard to afford? If a college degree is a key to our future, then shouldn't we find ways to make that degree something that doesn't force students into debt for years after?" said Augusta State University student Sherry Banks. "Hillary Clinton's ideas would go far in making it so a college degree doesn't come hand-in-hand with years of debt and financial anxiety."

"I really appreciate Hillary establishing plans that are for students, for seniors, for everyone. It shows that she is in tune with the concerns and the problems that we all face, and that's why I'm supporting her," said University of Georgia sophomore Jake Campbell.

"Each time I have to write the check for tuition, it stuns me. And what is even more amazing is the sacrifice that so many students and their families make so that tuition bills get paid. Earning a degree should be a launching pad for a successful future, and not a dead weight of heavy burden for young people and their families to carry for years," said Marquise Alston, a Spelman College sophomore. "Hillary's plan makes sense. It places the priority on earning a degree and building a future, and not just on paying off massive student loans."

"Getting financial aid is difficult. The forms are way too long and confusing. The process is slow and secret. And the end result most times is that students, who aren't going to make megabucks, are hit with huge debt when they graduate. That makes no sense," said Kristen Hector, a fifth-year Georgia Tech student from Conyers. "By expanding grants and creating ways to have student loans forgiven through work, Hillary Clinton's ideas would make it so students wouldn't be hit with such huge debt after graduation. We'd be able to afford better schools, get better degrees, and put those degrees to work in better jobs."

"Each year, tuition and fees get more expensive. But financial aid stays stuck, and the debt that I'll have after graduation gets bigger and bigger. I think all of us would be better off with a plan that makes colleges more affordable, that finds a way to slow down the huge increases that we have to swallow year after year, and that gives us more financial support as we earn our degrees," explained University of West Georgia junior Skyler Akins of Rockmart. "Hillary Clinton has a plan that would make a college degree more affordable for lots more Georgia students."

"For so many of us, when we walk out the door with our degree, we'll be carrying a debt that will be with us for years. That makes no sense. Hillary Clinton's plan would make college more affordable for every student. It would put some balance into what has become an out-of-whack system of paying for college tuition," Morehouse College student Isaiah Wilson explained.

More information is available at http://hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=3671.