Why the economy and student debt matter in Election 2020
Also, UConn's young political leaders sound off on the issues, what happened at Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and how long are you willing to wait in line to vote.
In this week’s edition of Crash Course, our team explains why the economy and unemployment are major factors in the 2020 election and how these issues pertain to college students. Mike Mavredakis talked with UConn experts about unemployment amid COVID-19 and the national conversation surrounding stimulus checks. Ben Crnic examined the pervasive problem of student loan debt.
We also looked at why voting matters for young people, with Ashley Anglisano interviewing leaders of UConn’s political organizations. Keep reading for Allison O’Donnell’s recap of the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Finally, we’ve got a summary of the dueling town halls held by the presidential candidates and a conversation starter about long lines at the polls.
The unemployment rate among young adults is high, but they’ve been mostly ignored in stimulus packages
Mike Mavredakis writes: Nearly 80 percent of registered voters say the economy is an important issue, according to an August 2020 Pew Research Center study. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to rising unemployment rates nationwide, especially among young people and BIPOC.
People aged 18 to 19 — the age of most first- and second-year college students — are the second-highest unemployment rate of any age group with 15.4% — second only to the 16- to 17-year-old group at 17%.
Despite people gradually returning to work over the past seven months, 12.6 million people are still out of a job nationally, according to the most recent jobs report from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. That puts total U.S. unemployment at 7.9%.
However, Dr. Fred Carstensen, a UConn finance professor and Director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis, pointed out that about 26 million people — or 16% of the country — are currently receiving unemployment insurance benefits.
The unemployment rate for Black people fell slightly to 12.1%, but has been steadily above the unemployment rate of white people by at least 4% since May. Unemployment among Hispanic and Asian people are at 10.3% and 8.9%, respectively.
Service jobs, which are typically some of the most available to college students, who have a limited amount of time to work around classes, also have the highest unemployment rate of any occupation at 12% — more than triple the 3.8% rate from Sept. 2019.
Unemployment in Connecticut nearly tripled from 3.4% in March to 10.2% in July, according to Connecticut Department of Labor. The in-state unemployment rate dipped for the first time since April to 8.1% in August.
Another measure is job postings. Indeed.com listings were down 16.5% from this time last year, the company released Tuesday.
If college is supposed to provide a pathway to a higher-level, more well-paying jobs, what happens if there aren’t jobs when you graduate?
“I remember what I told my UConn students who graduated in May 2009, and that was to continue your education in some way,” UConn Political Science Professor Brian Waddell explained via email when asked if graduating seniors should be confident there will be a job for them come May. “Don't try to enter the job market right away given the constraints that exist, and buff up your credentials by getting a Masters or other type of degree instead.”
The federal government passed two stimulus bills since the pandemic started and has been in talks for a third for months now. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this week getting a deal done before the election will be “difficult.”
College-age people have largely been ignored in those stimulus packages. Those between ages of 17 to 24 who were claimed as dependents on their parents or guardians’ taxes were not eligible for the $1,200 stimulus checks sent out as a part of the CARES Act.
“Historically, young adults are the least likely to vote; they aren't seen as having a "voice" so they can be ignored without much penalty in the view of many politicians,” Carstensen explained.
“A critical reason there has been no federal stimulus is that the damage is now almost exclusively among ethnic minorities and low-wage, low-skill workers — many of whom are not politically active,” Carstensen added. “Perhaps students are seen in the same category of being politically impotent and thus easy to ignore.” Continue reading »
Why student loan debt is a bigger issue than you think
Ben Crnic writes: If you’re going to college, there’s a good chance that you’ve taken out a loan to pay for your degree. There’s also a good chance that after graduating, you’ll owe more than $30,000. After all, the average student loan debt nationwide for college graduates in 2019 was $30,062. That number is even higher for college students in Connecticut.
Photo via Unsplash
According to a recent report by the Institute for College Access and Success, Connecticut four-year college graduates in 2019 had the third-highest average student debt, at $38,546.
Student loan debt nationwide adds up to $1.6 trillion, according to US News & World Report. This is in part due to the increasing price of college tuition over the past 20 years. The cost of a college education may rise even higher if universities can’t find a way to offset losses caused by the pandemic.
That debt poses problems for the economy as a whole, as well as for the college graduates struggling to pay it off.
“I think it’s a pretty big problem. It’s a problem for the economy in general, as it means people can put less money in the economy,” said UConn Political Science Professor Thomas Hayes. “I’m 8 years out from my Ph.D. and I’m still paying. It’s a significant portion of people’s budget.”
Student loan debt can slow down how fast people start families and purchase homes, negatively affect the growth of small businesses and prevent young people from saving up for retirement, according to Washington Post.
“No one should be financially brutalized for attending higher-level education that betters themselves and the country. Forgiveness of student loan debt would be a worthwhile investment in the younger generations,” said UConn senior Jared Cote, a geography major.
UConn alumna Anna Holden ‘20 said she is strongly against students having such large amounts of debt. “Student loan debt is a way to keep the working and lower class from progressing,” she said.
Are the presidential candidates planning to do anything about it?
During the primaries, former candidate Bernie Sanders offered a plan in which all student loan debt would be erased, releasing 45 million Americans from payments. Elizabeth Warren, another former candidate, proposed a plan that would erase up to $50,000 in student loan debt for 42 million Americans.
Democratic presidential candidate Biden does not offer an extreme plan in regards to erasing student loan debt. However, he intends to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt for individuals. According to his campaign website, Biden also plans to make two years of community college free, make public colleges and universities free for families who make under $125,000, and eliminate loan payments for those who make under $25,000 a year. People who make over $25,000 would still have to pay 5% of their income in an income-based repayment plan.
President Trump has much less to say on the subject of student loan forgiveness. He supports income-driven repayment plans but does not have a set plan for forgiving student loan debt. Trump has enacted some student loan forgiveness though through COVID-19 relief legislation. He allowed people who have federal loans to defer payments through December 31 and his current $1.8 trillion stimulus package proposal sets aside $25 billion for student loan forgiveness. That puts a small dent into the grand total of $1.6 trillion that American college graduates currently face.
Currently, less than 11% of people with federal student loans are paying them back. Read more »
Graphic designed by Allison O’Donnell.
Young political leaders at UConn agree: This election is ‘big for everybody on both sides’
Ashley Anglisano writes: A Spring 2020 Harvard poll of 18- to 29-year-olds found that 6 out of 10 respondents will “definitely be voting” in this year’s presidential election, up 16% from this time in the 2016 election.
Connecticut, a historically blue state, is home to both young Democrats and young Republicans, with chapters for both parties at colleges across the state.
Michael Cerulli is president of College Democrats of Connecticut and a UConn student. Climate change, Supreme Court seats and the U.S. Census count are some of the “once in a lifetime” topics that are driving young Democrats to the polls in this upcoming election, Cerulli said.
Tom Heuschkel, president of UConn College Republicans, argued the notion of this being a “once in a lifetime election” is said every election cycle.
“You hear it every four years, ‘The stakes have never been higher,’ ‘It’s the most important election of our lives.’ Given where we are now, in the pandemic and amongst all the social movements that have gone on in the last couple months, it’s big for everybody on both sides,” Heuschkel said.
Cerulli said another important issue to young Democrats is the value of their education. He noted the price of education is going up when “arguably the quality of education is going down.”
Heuschkel echoed the concern of student loan debt among young Republican voters and said it’s important for students to understand what they are getting themselves into when they go to college.
“I hope people can understand the financial investment behind [going to college], and not just hope that one day the government is going to decide to pay for it,” Heuschkel said.
College students also should pay more attention to the local elections as the Connecticut state legislature makes a lot of decisions, Cerulli said.
“I saw a bunch of anger over the last few months toward the UConn administration, some of that anger justified and some of it, frankly, not justified,” Cerulli said. “The people they should really be taking those grievances up with are their state legislators, who are doing things like setting UConn’s budget and determining things like what UConn can and can’t do in terms of student relief.” Read more »
Party line politics push Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court confirmation through to full Senate vote on Oct. 22
Allison O’Donnell writes: “This is probably not about persuading each other, unless something really dramatic happens. All Republicans will vote yes, and all Democrats will vote no,” remarked Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the start of hearings this week to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
However, Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, announced they will not be supporting President Trump’s nomination of Barrett before Election Day. Without Murkowski and Collins, there are exactly enough Republican senators to confirm Barrett. If any other Republican senator votes against her nomination, she will not be confirmed.
Confirmation hearings began Monday with opening statements from senators and Barrett, followed by two days of questioning by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Barrett was not present at Thursday’s hearing, where witnesses for and against her nomination had a chance to speak.
Barrett continually reaffirmed her stance as a non-partisan actor. In response to a question about whether she would recuse herself from hearing any case presented to the high court regarding the 2020 presidential election, she said:
“I certainly hope that all members of the committee have more confidence in my integrity than to think I would allow myself to be used as a pawn to decide this election for the American people…What I will commit to every member of the committee, to the rest of the Senate, and to the American people is that I will consider all factors that are relevant to that question — relevant to that question that requires recusal when there's an appearance of bias."
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal tried to ascertain Barrett’s stance on birth control, gay marriage and climate change, the CT Mirror reported. However, Barrett made a point to not give her opinion, saying, “I can’t give a yes or a no, and my declining to give an answer doesn’t suggest disagreement or an agreement.
Blumenthal also brought up a landmark Supreme Court case, Griswold v Connecticut, which held an implied constitutional right to privacy and prohibited states from denying contraceptives to married couples. While Barrett did not give her opinion on the ruling, she has been criticized for not categorizing that case as a super-precedent.
During questioning from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Barrett confirmed that she didn't consider the landmark abortion rights case Roe v Wade to be a super-precedent. Barrett defended her stance, saying super-precedent “cases that are so well settled that no political actors and no people seriously push for their overruling, and I'm answering a lot of questions about Roe…which I think indicates that Roe doesn't fall in that category.”
UConn Political Science Professor Kim Bergendahl said the Senate’s influence on Supreme Court nominations is changing.
“The politicization of this process is quantified in different ways. Today, we see this in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings [for the appointment of Barrett]. There was very little talk of her qualifications and more about the Trump Administration,” Bergendahl said.
While we see the political divide among the GOP, Bergendahl argued that political polarization “has been the nature of these hearings, even well before the Trump Administration.”
As expected, the 12 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee voted to confirm Barrett’s nomination. The 10 Democrats opposed. The party-line vote pushed the nomination through to the full Senate, which will vote whether to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court at 1 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 22.
Biden and Trump host rival town halls, while final presidential debate set for Oct. 22
Ashley Anglisano writes: After President Trump backed out of a virtual second presidential debate, he appeared at town hall event in Miami Thursday night, broadcast at the same time as Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s town hall event in Philadelphia.
Biden’s town hall aired on ABC, hosted by George Stephanopoulos. Trump’s town hall, moderated by Savannah Guthrie, was shown on NBC, CNBC and MSNBC.
Guthrie’s style of asking questions was praised after she was able to get more responses out of Trump than the first Presidential debate. She pressed him with questions about COVID-19, the Affordable Care Act, his stance on white supremacy, his views on QAnon and mail-in voting.
When asked about the timeline of the first debate and when he tested positive for COVID-19, Trump did not appear to be confident in when he got tested. After Guthrie asked multiple times if he had a test the day of the debate, Trump responded “I probably did.”
In Philadelphia, Biden gave answers on topics including the justice system, economic opportunity, COVID-19 and his opponent for the presidency. Biden avoided answering a question about adding more justices to the Supreme Court.
In response to a young Black male audience member who asked about Biden’s message to Black voters like himself, Biden responded “if young Black women and men vote, you can determine the outcome of this election.”
The final presidential debate is scheduled for Thursday, October 22 at Belmont University in Nashville. It will be moderated by NBC News' White House correspondent Kristen Welker. She is only the second Black woman to serve as the sole moderator of a presidential debate. Topics have not yet been announced.
Conversation starter: How long are you willing to wait to cast your vote?
Fiona Brady writes: With 18 days left until Election Day, more Americans are choosing to get their vote in early. All Connecticut residents this year are eligible to vote via absentee ballot, which can be mailed in or returned to a secure drop box location. Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Virginia, and Illinois are among the states offering in-person voting opportunities ahead of Election Day, which has resulted in unprecedented voter turnout, long lines and technical difficulties.
According to the U.S. Elections Project, 17.7 million voters have already cast their ballots for the upcoming general election. At this point in the 2016 election, the number of ballots cast was 1.4 million.
When Georgia opened voting polling locations this week, officials reported 128,590 votes cast. But problems emerged with the electronic voting systems, causing long wait times. In Atlanta, some voters waited up to eight hours to cast their ballot.
Early voters also surged to polling places in Texas for the first week of early voting, surpassing 1 million votes on Monday. Voters there reported hours-long wait times, sharing photos of socially distanced lines stretching through parking lots and around polling locations. Unlike Connecticut, Texas has restricted vote by mail to people who are over 65 and people with disabilities, one reason why so many are choosing to cast ballots early in-person.
We’ve also seen disagreements this week about ‘poll watchers’ after President Trump urged his supporters during the first presidential debate to “to go into the polls and watch very carefully." Poll watchers are appointed by political parties to ensure the election is being conducted fairly, but Trump critics are voicing concerns about possible voter intimidation.
Some questions:
What’s your voting plan? Will you cast your vote on election day, participate in early voting, mail in your ballot, or utilize a ballot dropbox?
How long are you willing to wait in line to cast your vote on Election Day?
Do you want to go to the polling place for that in-person experience or are you worried your vote won’t be counted if you mail-in your ballot?
Does COVID-19 play a role in your voting plan? Are you concerned about being exposed to large groups of people at the polls?
Are self-appointed poll watchers a legitimate concern?
Talk about it with your friends and family! 🗣🗯
In case you missed it
Here are some notable headlines from the past week:
Rep. Jahana Hayes, Connecticut’s first Black congresswoman, was the target of a racist ‘Zoom bombing’ attack during a virtual community meeting on Monday. Hayes detailed the incident in an essay Tuesday, saying the participants repeatedly called her the N-word and played derogatory music. [CT Mirror]
Connecticut saw its largest single-day spike in COVID-19 infections in four months on Monday, with 2.4% of tests coming back positive. Hartford, Windham and 9 other Connecticut towns and cities have been identified as active COVID-19 hot spots. [Hartford Courant]
Democratic VP candidate Kamala Harris will halt travel through this weekend after a flight crew member and her communications director tested positive for COVID-19. Harris was reportedly not in close contact with the two individuals and tested negative on Thursday. [CNN]
The U.S. Postal Service agreed Wednesday to reverse service changes ahead of the Nov. 3 election. A lawsuit brought by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock argued the changes implemented in June harmed access to mail service, including reduced retail hours and banning or restricting overtime. [Associated Press].
A controversial New York Post story about the alleged emails of Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and his association with Ukraine was blocked by Twitter and limited by Facebook, bringing social media censorship to the spotlight again this week. [New York Times] [Washington Post]
The chief executive of Pfizer pharmaceuticals confirmed Friday the company could be ready to apply for emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine in late November, weeks after the election. [NBC]
That’s it for this week’s Crash Course! Next week we will focus on race and policing, as well as immigration policy. We’ll also give you a breakdown of the down-ballot elections to watch in Connecticut.
Crash Course is reported, written and produced by UConn Journalism majors Ashley Anglisano, Fiona Brady, Ben Crnic, Mike Mavredakis and Allison O’Donnell, under the guidance of UConn Journalism Associate Professor Marie K. Shanahan. Read more about us »
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