Editorial: More than a matter of interest

As it has become readily apparent that Mitt Romney will be the Republican challenger to Barack Obama in the race for president, the two have recently turned their attention to the nation’s most critical demographic: college students. 

On Monday, Obama’s campaign began an aggressive push to emphasize the president’s commitment to keeping student loan interest rates low.

But Romney, at a stop in Philadelphia on Monday, said that he too supported keeping interest rates low for college students. 

The issue at hand is 2007’s College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which cut interest rates on Stafford loans in half to 3.4 percent. But rates are set to return to 6.8 percent at the end of this academic year. 

Student-loan debt in the U.S. has topped $870 billion. It is no surprise, then, that both Obama and Romney said they support extending the low interest rates. It is a rare agreement for the two candidates, who will spend the better part of the next six months trading barbs. 

Students should be wary, however, of candidates baiting them with issues such as loan interest rates. There’s no doubt that it is an important issue, and we urge Congress to extend the low interest rate as the cost of higher education continues to skyrocket – perhaps most notably in this state. 

But it’s clear that both Obama and Romney are fishing for the student vote. Obama has lost a significant amount of student support over his four years in office, while Romney has never really had much support from students. 

Obama has charged Republicans in the legislature of pushing for the reinstatement of higher interest rates. But as the Associated Press pointed out in an article released on April 20 titled “Big colleges, swing states: Obama makes his pitch,” it was House Democrats in 2007 who crafted the law so that the interest rates would double in 2012, setting up an election year issue. 

Romney, meanwhile, is all of a sudden showing an interest in the rising problem of student debt on the same weekend the president began his trip to three colleges in swing states. 

His rhetoric has changed from past months. 

“My best advice is find a great institution of higher learning, find one that has the right price, and shop around. In America, this idea of competition, it works,” Romney said at a stop in Ohio last month. 

But as state legislatures around the country slash public funding for universities, finding an affordable education is not as easy as Romney makes it seem. 

Obama and Romney supporting low interest rates is a good thing for college students. Perhaps leaders from both sides of the spectrum will convince the legislature to keep rates at 3.4 percent. 

But it shouldn’t be a decisive issue for college students when making a decision between Obama and Romney. Students need to look deeper at their policies and platforms, and realize that both candidates will do almost anything to secure the younger generation’s vote.