Marco Rubio had the opportunity to tout his credentials, as what he calls, “the only Republican candidate who consistently talks about student loan debt,” at the first part of CNN’s Town Hall on Wednesday night in S.C.
A senior from Furman University asked Rubio about the cost of education and making it affordable, to which he gave a lengthy response.
In addition to cracking a few jokes about his own debt, Rubio touted his bi-partisan plans, which amount to four things.
The first has to do with “alternative accrediting,” since, as Rubio says, “it’s basically a monopoly” with the limited amount of accrediting agencies. He wants schools to give credit to students for what they’ve already learned in life. Rubio mentioned this would be especially important for non-traditional students, such as a single mom.
His second plan involves an alternative to student loans, known as “the student investment plan.” A private investor, if they believed in a student enough, could fund that student’s education for a future percentage of the student’s earnings.
The third involves “to make income-based repayment the automatic method of repaying a loan.” Rubio is currently working on such a bill with Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia.
He highlighted this plan by mentioning that he “would rather collect twenty dollars a month from a student than nothing.” This, as Rubio said, would help avoid defaulting on loans.
The fourth, “Right to Know Before You Go,” is being worked on with Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Ore. As the name suggests, schools will have to tell students how much graduates make with the degree that student is seeking before students take out a loan.
Rubio offers it as a form of advisement in addition to the U.S. News & World College Rankings. He also spoke of how he discusses the issue often because it’s “deeply personal to him.”
Rubio closed by saying that “higher education is a necessity, it is no longer a luxury.”
The relevant question/response is at about 8:20 in the video below.
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