NH Young Dems: On College Debt, Ayotte's Record Fails

By NH Young Democrats

One of the most pressing issues for young people in New Hampshire and across the country continues to be the growing burden of student loan debt.

It’s painfully clear that the cost of getting a college education is too high. For many, that cost can be prohibitive, barring would-be students looking to build a brighter future for themselves from ever setting foot on a campus. For many others, the only way to attend college is by taking out massive loans and incurring a debt that they will work to pay off for years to come.

The issue of college affordability and student loan debt is something that we hope will play a critical role in the 2016 elections. But, unfortunately, not every politician is serious about tackling this critical challenge for students and their families.

U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, is one of those politicians.

We’re confident that, as her re-election nears, Ayotte is going to be paying a lot of lip service to the students and young people of New Hampshire. Given that, we want our fellow young Granite Staters to know the truth about the Senator’s record.

That truth is this: Ayotte has voted, with excruciating regularity, to make college more expensive for New Hampshire students and families. And now, she is trying to use Washington tricks to deceive the voters of New Hampshire about her true record. But her deception won’t work.

Earlier this year, Ayotte voted to cut the Pell Grant program, which gives qualifying low income students financial aid to help them pay for college, by a devastating $90 billion over the next decade.

And Ayotte has voted to cut Pell Grants before – many times. In 2011 she voted for a Republican spending proposal that would have cut $12 million in the Pell Grants program for just New Hampshire, which would have impacted 21,000 Granite State students. Ayotte also voted three separate times for the Ryan Budgets (in 2011, 2012, and 2013) that would all have cut Pell Grants. Each of those votes taken by Ayotte was a vote to make it harder to afford a college education.

Ayotte has also voted to end an expansion of the “Pay As You Earn Program,” an income-driven plan designed to help borrowers avoid defaulting on their loans by capping their monthly loan payments at ten percent of their income. Because of that vote, student loan payments by those in the program stand to double.

If our leaders want a strong, skilled workforce for the 21st century, they should be making college more affordable and accessible. If they want young people to invest in the economy and have the same economic opportunities that their parents did, they should be making it easier for college graduates to pay off their student loan debts. Ayotte has consistently done just the opposite since going to the Senate.

We expect that Ayotte is going to be talking a lot about college affordability in the upcoming election because she will be opportunistically courting young NH voters while trying to distance herself from her voting record. So, we want Granite Staters to know the truth. Despite Ayotte’s best efforts, it won’t take a college math class to see that her record is one of repeatedly voting to make college more expensive for New Hampshire students.

Submitted by the New Hampshire Young Democrats Board