Rep. Braley hears student concerns about college cost, aid

CEDAR RAPIDS - Faced with higher college costs, students told U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley they are questioning the value of a degree and feel crushed taking on debt to pay for their education.

'The outcome of a college degree is not necessarily worth the outcome now because of tuition costs,” Grant Gregory a political science major at University of Iowa said. Gregory was one of 12 students who accepted a Braley campaign invitation to participate in a round-table with the congressman Monday at Kirkwood Community College.

According to the Project on Student Debt, students at four-year Iowa colleges and universities graduate with an average debt of $29,456 and 71 percent have some form of debt.

In some cases, Tallee Mabe, who attended Kirkwood before transferring to the University of Northern Iowa, said, students are forced to choose between buying textbooks and paying rent.

The debt load students take on to get an education is 'crushing,” she said. Students, Mabe added, often are bewildered as they weigh federal financial aid programs, private loans, work and other options to finance their education.

Braley, a Waterloo Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, told the students he has worked to maintain funds for Pell grants, which reduce the burden for low-income students. In Iowa, Pell grants provide $359 million to about 111,000 college students, he said. That includes nearly $19 million a year for 5,678 Kirkwood students.

His opponent, Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst, would 'follow the tea party by eliminating the Department of Education and jeopardizing Pell grants for over 111,000 Iowa students, increase college costs and potentially closing the doors to a college education for more than 8,500 students at Kirkwood and UNI,” Braley said.

At an Iowa State University forum in April, Ernst said 'the federal government has to get out of the student loan business.”

However, with her own daughter thinking about college, Ernst wants to work in the Senate to address what's making higher education unaffordable to some Iowans: exploding tuition costs.

'Pell Grants and federal student loans are a necessary part of the puzzle to make college possible for many Iowans, but do not solve the root cause of the problem,” her spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said. Rising tuition costs 'lead to higher debt and less opportunity for future generations of young Americans.”