Education

Lately, there has been a lot of talk on Capitol Hill about student loans, with each political party proposing different ways to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling, as they are set to do this summer. As a pediatrician going into a pediatric subspecialty, I am painfully aware of the financial burden of medical education: I owe more than $350,000 in education loans, including college and a Masters in Public Health graduate degree, and  only part of that sum includes medical school. For me and so many others like me across the country, loan repayment has become an additional 30 year mortgage, and its staggering debt makes it nearly impossible to contemplate new investments like a home or college savings for my own child’s future.
 
I take on this burden because I love what I do: caring for children in some of the scariest moments of their young lives, when they visit the emergency room. I am currently pursuing a fellowship in emergency medicine here in DC. In this field, I can help pediatric patients in nearly every aspect of their health in the moment when they need me the most. It is exhausting, rewarding work, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.

November is nearing, and around the country candidates are courting voters.

Policymakers on both sides of the aisle are taking to the airwaves, urging a return to local control of education. Some have even suggested that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) ushered in a “one size fits all” approach to education with little or no flexibility.

I remember a time when someone could drop out of high school one day and start work on the assembly line at General Motors the next day and make a good living.

Since our economic downturn, college graduates have suffered tremendously, experiencing fewer and fewer job opportunities.

The House Republican majority recently passed a budget that deeply slashes Pell Grants for nearly 10 million college students and allows student loan interest rates to double in July.

In 2012, more than 13 million children will be teased, taunted and physically assaulted by their peers, making bullying the most common form of violence our nation’s youth experience this year.

As Congress debates the extremely narrow issue of whether to extend the current 3.4% interest rate on Federal Student Loans, or to let that rate expire and, thus, double to its previous level of 6.8%, both sides of the aisle are missing an opportunity to do something unique, decisive and bold: adopt legislation that forgives excessive student loan debt after a reasonable repayment period.


Representative Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.) introduced an unprecedented piece of legislation in March - H.R. 4170, The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, in response to over 660,000 people who signed a petition I started in favor of student loan forgiveness. Yet, despite the public outcry, only one member initially stepped up to put his name and reputation on the line in order to draw attention to the ever-growing crisis of student loan debt.  Rep. Clarke has taken on the role of Champion for the educated poor – the 36 million Americans who are drowning under the weight of their student loan debts. A new petition I started in favor of H.R. 4170 currently has over 939,000 signatures.

When it comes to important issues that are often overlooked by elected officials and political candidates, the nation’s commitment – or lack thereof – to developing our most talented minds is the poster child.
 
Conventional wisdom holds that the presidential election will be won or lost largely on the state of the economy. But while current economic sentiment is rightfully important, it is a disservice to the electorate and our future vitality and prosperity to ignore that we have no strategy, plan or system to develop our most promising talent.
 
If any candidate is looking for a sign of the consequences from neglecting this issue, the mothballing of the nation’s once storied space shuttle fleet should provide convincing evidence.
 
The shuttle’s scuttle means that the United States, which a half-century ago won the space race by landing men on the moon a mere eight years after committing itself to the cause, has, for the foreseeable future, no means to travel into space without an assist from our past arch-rivals.
 
How did we get here?

As our nation continues to recover from the financial crisis, one question stands above the others: Can we rebuild an economic foundation stronger than the one that existed before?
 
If we’re willing to truly invest in the next generation of Americans, making sure they have the competency-based education and skills training they need to compete in a 21st century global economy, the answer is yes.
 
Across the country and around the world, committed community leaders, non-profits, educators, and students have dedicated themselves to finding solutions to these challenges. But we have a lot more work to do, and it will take federal policymakers coming together around bipartisan priorities to make it a reality. It will take leaders who are able to see beyond the next election to a horizon in which our children and grandchildren occupy the largest, most competitive, worldwide job market ever.