VP Of Young Dems For America: Student Loan Debt Holding Back Millennials
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Danielle Glover, the Vice-President of Young Dems For America, said crushing student loan debt is holding millennials back from fulfilling their full economic potential.
Glover, during an interview with Dom Girodano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said the entire American economy would benefit if the burden of student loan debt was lessened for recent college graduates.
"Student loan debt is definitely something that is important and is a threat to our economy. It is what most millennials are dealing with and when you have crippling student loan debt, you are unable to make large purchases, [or] put off having children. That impacts the entire economy. We're under-employed. Some of us are even unemployed. When we aren't out there working, we're not contributing to the economy in a way that we should be or could be."
She said every option should be considered when attempting to afford a college education, including less expensive avenues like community college.
"Most of the jobs we're looking at getting require some type of college education and so it's important that we're looking at all different options to ensure that people have the opportunity to go. Is that, maybe, possibly, going to a community college for a couple years? Absolutely. But I can tell you that that's not necessarily being talked in high schools and as talked about as options as much as it should be. I do know that there's a lot of people that did do that. In fact, I went to community college while I was in high school."
Glover supported examining ideas like free tuition, but noted only those who take full advantage of it will reap the rewards.
"I think we have to remember it is not necessarily free to go to school. The things that are being talked about are free tuition, but it's not going to be a benefit if people are going and they're slacking off. There's no win for them in that. It's something that we need to be addressing. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are looking at this and they're saying this is an issue that is impacting a large demographic in the United States and we need to do something about it."