Republican presidential contender John Kasich spoke about debt — both the nation’s and individual students’, along with the future of college education — to a packed hotel ballroom in Madison on Monday night to rally support for his bid for the GOP nomination.
During his speech, the Ohio governor referred back to digital screen in the corner of the room showing the growing national debt in real time.
“You’ve got a lot of students going to the University of Wisconsin. It’s not cheap,” he said. “As those numbers go up, your chances of getting a job goes down,” point to the digital screen showing more than $19 trillion in debt.
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Kasich also took on the issue of student debt during the town hall. When asked about Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ free college plan, Kasich said the answer to tackling college affordability isn’t making school free, but by holding university leadership accountable.
“Now, maybe we resolve it with some community service, forgiveness. We can maybe restructure these loans. I mean there’s ways we have to think about dealing with it. But, we can’t do it until these univesrities get their costs under control,” he said.
Kasich also said guidance counselors should point students to majors that lead to jobs in growing fields.
“There are a lot of jobs for political science majors at Nordstrom,” Kasich said to a UW student in the audience.
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