If you are a college student who works and borrows for your education, July 1 is a portentous date. Unless Congress acts, your loan rates will double.
If Congress doesn’t act by July 1, more than 7 million undergraduates taking out federally subsidized loans to cover next year’s tuition will have to dig deeper in their pockets to pay them off. The average cost to students would be $1,000 in increased student loan debt, according to the White House. (CNN News)
Now if we were talking about reducing Social Security benefits or rolling back the middle class tax cuts, there would be frantic scrambling in both branches of the legislature to prevent an election-year disaster. Instead each party is squabbling about how to pay to keep the loan rates stable by cutting their opponent’s favorite program, and the deadline looms closer each day. It’s very likely the axe will fall and student loan rates will skyrocket.
Why? Because most legislators expect college students to remain on the sidelines come election day. They don’t see the college vote as consequential to their election. And yet seven million students affected by this? Isn’t that a likely margin for a Presidential victory in November?
Students, your legislators assume you are:
1) Cynical: You are willing to rationalize your lack of voting by saying your voice doesn’t matter.
2) Lazy: You aren’t going to the trouble to get an absentee ballot this summer, so you can vote from your campus in the fall.
3) Aloof: You don’t feel responsible, because your job is to get an education and let older adults run the country in the meantime.
4) Ignorant and Complacent: You don’t know how to register to vote and neither do your friends.
Really? Is this what fifteen years of schooling has taught you? That your voice doesn’t matter and voting is not your business? That you are protected from the mismanagement of your elders? Well, these cop-outs are what your representatives are counting on.
We know there is a potent voting block of SEVEN MILLION of you who will be seriously affected by what doesn’t happen by July 1. Mark the date on your calendar. Then on the next day, make another note: REGISTER FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT. Then when the ballot comes in the mail, VOTE. Or, if you can vote locally on campus or at home, GET OUT TO THE POLLS.
Sorry for the shouting. Sometimes it’s hard to get your attention. You’re not cynical or lazy or aloof or complacent or ignorant, but you’re distracted. So, LISTEN UP!
Imagine this headline on November 7.
Seven Million College Students Shake Up Incumbents!
Sweet revenge! They’ll never take you for granted again. When the bills for college loans and scholarships and internships and job training come up, Congress will rush to the floor and say: We have to get this done! College students vote!
Pay attention, now! This will not be on the test, but it could cost you a lot of money. Voting pays! Make your elected representatives pay as well.