issues

The Student Debt Crisis

I joined the Army to unlock an education I would have otherwise not been able to afford, and despite the GI Bill, I have nearly $70,000 of student loan debt from getting my Master’s degree at Oxford University. As the daughter of parents who weren’t able to afford college or access the resources they needed to get there, I recognize that far too many families struggle to obtain higher education. Since 2006, student debt in America has nearly tripled; almost 45 million borrowers owe $1.6 trillion. The average borrower owes close to $33,000 and pays nearly $400 per month in debt service. Confronting the student debt crisis raises fundamental questions about how much an education should cost, who can attend college, and how students will pay their debts over time.

During the The COVID-19 pandemic, I worked at the county government level as a policy writer to implement the CARES Act, part of which provided a moratorium on payments for federal student loan borrowers.

Real Solutions for Affordable Higher Education 

The cost of college needs to be significantly reduced to make it more accessible to students who want to attend a two or four year institution. The federal government can play an important role to push institutions to reduce costs, as well as reduce the burdens for borrowers through fairer interest rates and caps on monthly payments. We also need to expand public interest loan forgiveness programs, ensuring that anyone can afford to work in the public or nonprofit sector, regardless of their student loan burden. 

Public Education

As a graduate of Pennsylvania’s public schools, I absolutely believe we need greater oversight of the charter school system.  Lack of regulation in charter schools negatively impacts the quality of our public schools as well as that of benefits and positions for public school teachers.