After my Obama/Biden signs were stolen from my yard for the third time, I decided to hang the signs up in my trees.

But back to Earth. President Obama and the Democrats have helped university students greatly with the strengthening of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF). Students like my two daughters, each of whom have just graduated with six-digit college debts, will be able to consolidate their loans, work for a public service employer, make 10 years of payments based on their incomes and then have their loan remainders forgiven. Public service employers include any federal, state, local or tribal institutions, and some private, non-profit agencies serving public health, education, early childhood, families, elderly, military and disabled persons.

As the Washington Monthly states, President Obama "kicked banks out of the federal student loan program" and ended a wasteful decades-old practice of subsidizing banks to provide college loans, saving $67 billion over 10 years, $37 billion of which will go toward expanding Pell Grants to lower and middle income students. Think-tank Education Sector reports that Obama, by making college loans into one simple income-contingent federal loan, "makes it possible for virtually every American to afford post-secondary education without the risk of going bankrupt." Also, Obama allowed some private loans, previously ineligible for PSLF, to be consolidated into the federal Direct Loan Program and be forgiven.


On the other hand, the National Education Association Today (November) reports Gov. Romney "has said students should get only 'as much education as they can afford.'" He doesn't realize that for many, college is unaffordable, period. For others, the college debt is crippling.

Please vote for President Obama and keep the door open to higher education for all of our youth. This is one down-to-earth, long-lasting benefit for the whole country.