Candidates saddled with student debt
Des candidats aux élections peinent à rembourser leur prêt étudiant (to be saddled with debt être criblé de dettes)
En Californie, la dette étudiante inquiète les politiques.
Aux Etats-Unis, des frais de scolarité exorbitants contraignent la majorité des étudiants à contracter des prêts et à démarrer leur vie active en étant fortement endettés. Aujourd’hui, plus de 44 millions d’Américains auraient à rembourser un prêt étudiant ; le montant de cette dette s’élèverait désormais à 1,5 billion de dollars pour l’ensemble du pays – un endettement record que des candidats californiens au Congrès veulent réduire au plus vite.
Andrew Janz has raised millions of dollars for his campaign as a Democrat running for Congress in the Central Valley. But the 34-year-old is used to big numbers: After working his way through undergraduate, graduate and law school, he owes about $300,000 in student debt — more than his mortgage. Janz is part of a groundswell of younger politicians who are on the front lines of America’s student debt crisis. Seven congressional candidates running in California this year owe at least $10,000, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of financial disclosures. In addition, seven members of the state’s congressional delegation, all of whom were elected within the last six years, are still paying off thousands of dollars in student loans. Three others reported being in debt for their kids’ education.
2. That means roughly one out of every six Californians on the ballot for Congress in November
1. to raise collecter, réunir, lever (fonds) / to run, ran, run for être candidat à / to work one's way through college/university financer ses études grâce à des prêts et des petits boulots / undergraduate school établissement supérieur de premier cycle / graduate school établissement supérieur assurant les cours post-licence / to owe devoir (argent) / mortgage crédit immobilier / groundswell raz-de marée, soulèvement / according to d'après, selon / disclosure publication d'informations / to pay, paid, paid off rembourser / loan prêt. 2. roughly à peu près / out of ici, sur / ballot vote; ici, on the ballot candidat / owe student debt — together, they’re more than $1.1 million in the red. “Our future generations are definitely being robbed of any meaningful start to their lives,” said Janz, taking a break from shaking hands at a recent Democratic Party meeting in Oakland. “Instead of being able to reinvest that money into the economy, I’m paying off predators.”
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
3. As more candidates who have personally experienced the burden of student debt run for office and win, they’re raising the likelihood that Congress will act to help struggling graduates, observers say. They’re also rewriting the rules of political campaigns, revealing the same sort of personal and financial hard-
ships faced by younger voters and families struggling to put their kids through college. “Having debt, which normally might be a liability in a traditional campaign, today helps many voters identify with a candidate,” said David McCuan, a politics professor at Sonoma State University.
4. Student debt levels have skyrocketed in recent years, as the cost of college has risen and wages have stagnated. More than half of California students graduate with debt, and the average student owes $21,382 at graduation, according to the Institute for College Access & Success.
PUSHING FOR REFORM
5. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, who owes just under $100,000 for his undergraduate and law degrees, has made student debt a focus since he was first elected in 2012. The 37-year-old has introduced legislation that would double tax deductions for student loan interest and forgive
hardship difficultés, épreuves / to face ici, rencontrer / to put, put, put sb through college payer les études de qqn / liability responsabilité; ici, source d’ennuis, handicap. 4. to skyrocket grimper en flèche / wage salaire / average moyen, ordinaire. 5. Rep. = Representative membre de la Chambre des représentants, député / D-Dublin D = Démocrate, Dublin, Californie (ville d'origine d'Eric Swalwell faisant partie de sa circonscription) / focus centre d'intérêt; ici, priorité / to introduce présenter, déposer (projet de loi) / tax deduction déduction fiscale / to forgive, gave, given ici, effacer / more debt for graduates who go into public service jobs. He’s traveled the country to talk with young people about how to solve the crisis.
6. “It’s personal for me, because I’ve seen so many people I’ve grown up with chase that dream of being the first in their family to go to college… and come out in financial quicksand,” Swalwell said. He and his wife Brittany are still renting instead of buying a home — largely because the loan payments have made it impossible for them to save up a down payment. As he’s pushed for reform, Swalwell has encountered resistance from some older colleagues in Congress who got their degrees at a time when college was far more affordable. He tries to explain that it’s a different world for today’s graduates. College attendance costs have risen steeply over the last few decades: In the UC system, for example, the average annual tuition and fees for undergraduate Californians in 2016 was 20 times the cost in 1975. But so far, none of Swalwell’s student loan bills have passed the House.
TRUMP’S NEW MEASURES
7. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has proposed billions of dollars in cuts to student aid in its 2018 and 2019 budgets. An initial version of the GOP tax reform bill would have eliminated the student loan deduction, but it was restored during negotiations. [Last month], the administration proposed new rules that would make it harder for students defrauded by for-profit colleges to get loan forgiveness.
8. Electing more people who have personally experienced student debt could help tilt the conversation in graduates’ favor, said Natalia Abrams, the executive director of Student Debt Crisis, a Los Angeles advocacy group. “It’s been really great to see people who understand the issue get elected,” Abrams said. “Eight years ago, it was only backbenchers and small advocacy groups talking about this — now it’s on everyone’s lips in an election year.”
INTENSIFYING CONVERSATION
9. Outside of California, more candidates around the country are also running with student loans, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the liberal New Yorker who attracted national attention after defeating the fourth highest ranking Democrat in the House. The 28-year-old, who owes between $15,000 and $50,000, has proposed forgiving all student debt in the U.S.
10. The conversation around helping students crushed by debt is only likely to get louder as more young people jump into politics, said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Santa Clara, who owes more than $50,000 for his Yale law degree. “When you go through that process, you are more empathetic to the anxiety it causes for families,” he said. “It’s a huge burden limiting the kind of life young people can have.”
More than half of California students graduate with debt.