Rubio pitches college financing plan at University of Iowa

IOWA CITY - Drawing on his own experience as a student who owed more than $120,000 after college and law school, Marco Rubio laid out a plan to help students get the education they need without incurring that sort of burden.

At the University of Iowa on Thursday, Rubio said college costs too much, and changes are needed to make it faster, easier and cheaper for Americans to get the job skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing economy.

So he laid out a plan for income-based repayment of student loans, a way for investors to underwrite college education and for giving students more information about the cost of their debt and their earning potential in their chosen field.

First, however, he scored some easy points with his audience of mostly UI students by referencing the challenges the Hawkeyes face in the Rose Bowl and the annual UI-Iowa State University men's basketball game taking place later Thursday.

'What a great stadium,” he said looking out on the Kinnick field where the UI football team went undefeated this season. 'It smells like roses.”

In full disclosure, Rubio added, he had just come from ISU 'and they were talking so much trash about the game tonight. I'm just saying.”

Earlier, he laid out his three-point plan for reforming the Veterans Affairs to increase transparency and accountability and give veterans the option of seeking seeing health care in their own communities from non-VA providers.

The the UI, Rubio said the 2016 election presents a different sort of challenge for voters because it's not just a choice between Democrats and Republicans, but 'a referendum on our identity as a nation.”

The freshman Florida senator, who never mentioned he is a Republican, said the election will be about 'what kind of a country we build and leave behind” during a time of tremendous uncertainty and insecurity.

His education plan would reduce that uncertainty and insecurity students and their families feel as they try to pay for education whether at trade and technical schools or colleges and universities.

He wants college loan repayment to be based on income, so graduates are paying something rather than defaulting on loans because they can't pay the full amount each month.

'It's better to collect $20 a month than nothing,” he said because students who can't pay the full amount due each month won't ruin their credit rating.

He also proposed allowing investors to invest in students' education, with students contracting to repay the investment.

Finally, he wants students to get more information about the cost of their education, their options for financing it and what their earning potential will be when they graduate.

Lauren Freeman, president of the University of Iowa Democrats, said that students cramming for finals 'only need to read the CliffsNotes on Sen. Rubio to see … his ideas are all stale, old and would move Hawkeye students backward. Rubio would actually make it harder for students to pay back their loans,” she said in a news release. 'He voted against a bill that prevented our student loan interest rates from doubling.”

'He also opposed the bill that would have allowed us to refinance our loans. His only solution has been to have us students pitch ourselves to investors, who could then make a percentage of our future earnings.”

However, Rubio said his investment plan would be better than a loan because it wouldn't go on a student's credit report and the investor would be taking the risk.