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Student Debt Worse Than ISIS? Who is the Leading Candidate Among Borrowers?

Businessman holding empty pockets

If I was to ask you which you think is worse, ISIS or student debt, what would your answer be? Did you know that approximately seven out of ten students who graduate college will graduate with some type of student debt?

Unfortunately, the number of students who do have student loan debt continues to rise and the worst part? Whether you graduate or not, whether you land a good job or not, you still have to pay the loan back.

College graduates of the class of 2016 graduated with the most student loan debt in all of history. This is a shocking number, but what do the students who have to live with this debt actually think about it? I mentioned a survey that was conducted in February that dug a little deeper into the minds of 513 different college students who currently have student loan debt. The survey was designed to find out who students would like to see win the Presidential race. The results then had Bernie Sanders in the lead with 39.77 percent of student suggesting they would like to see him win. Hillary Clinton came in with 23.39 percent of votes and Donald Trump barely even made it onto the result sheet with just 10.52 percent.

Student loan debt is one of the hot topics right now in the race to become President because it is such a big problem. You have likely heard each one of the Presidential nominees talk about how they will handle the student loan debt problem, but none of the suggestions are written in stone yet. In fact, who even knows what will happen when the new President is voted into office.

With more than 43 million Americans holding student loan debt, we all know that something needs to be done about it. As the Presidential races continue to carry on, many people who were once in the race have dropped out and we have been left with only a few main candidates.

A new survey was taken at the end of May to find out where students now stand as far as who they want to win the Presidential race and how they feel about student loan debt. A total of 3,364 college students who had student loan debt participated in this quick online poll.

You will find these statistics quite shocking.

The first question that was asked to students was: “Who do you want to win the 2016 Presidential election?”

Of all students surveyed, the top choice was Bernie Sanders, who had 36.76 percent of the votes. The candidate in second place was Donald Trump, who had 25.74 percent of the votes. Hillary Clinton came in third with 12.75 percent of the votes.

The other 25.74 percent of the students said they were undecided at this point in time.

From these results, you can see that Bernie Sanders is still in the top spot, but Donald Trump has now passed Hillary Clinton by a landslide as compared to the February results.

So, why Bernie Sanders?

You may be wondering just why all of these students with student loan debt want Bernie Sanders for President. It is really no surprise once you have a good idea of what Sanders plans to do while he is in office, if elected of course.

Bernie Sanders has a six-step plan that he wants to implement, which includes:

  1. Making tuition at all public universities and colleges free.
  2. Stop the federal government from profiting off of student loans.
  3. Allow all students to refinance their student loans for a lower interest rate.
  4. Cut student loan interest rates.
  5. Impose a tax on Wall Street speculators.
  6. Allow students the opportunity to use need-based financial aid and work study programs.

Trump most likely saw a large jump as compared to the February survey as he is the only Republican candidate left. Though he may have not been as popular as other Republican candidates initially, it is apparent that many conservative voters were unwilling to jump parties when the other candidates dropped out.

The second question on the poll was, “What is a bigger threat facing the United States: ISIS or student loan debt?”

A shocking 54.01 percent of students said that student loan debt was a bigger threat. Only 45.99 percent of students thought that ISIS was a bigger threat.

This says a lot about where students and college graduates stand when it comes to student loan debt. It is a growing problem and it will continue to grow until something is done about it.

As we can see, a good majority of college graduates like Bernie Sanders because he has talked about handling student loan debt. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have not spent as much time talking about student loan debt, but if they take the time to do it, they may be able to clench most of that 25.74 percent of undecided voters.

 

Sources:

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/05/02/student-debt-is-about-to-set-another-record-but-the-picture-isnt-all-bad/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2016/06/13/student-loan-debt-is-hurting-the-housing-market-survey-finds/

https://lendedu.com/blog/june-student-loan-political-survey/

https://berniesanders.com/issues/its-time-to-make-college-tuition-free-and-debt-free/

 

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