Vice President Biden talks about value of college education

When Joe Biden, Jr. started thinking about attending the University of Delaware, he knew he… When Joe Biden Jr. started thinking about attending the University of Delaware, he knew he couldn’t bear the financial burden alone. So he turned to his father.

“It was the look on my father’s face, a proud man, stripped of his dignity — like so many parents today, looking at their daughter or son and knowing that they can’t help them,” Biden said as he remembered the economic hardships he faced while growing up.

Joe Biden Sr. was dealt a tough hand. Despite the postwar economic boom, he was unable to find steady work at a well-paying job, so he became a car salesman.

The younger Biden pushed past the setbacks and went from being the senator of Delaware to the vice president of the United States, and he said he wants a better situation for young Americans today.

He delivered this message to more than 600 students, faculty and local politicians crowded into the Connolly Ballroom in Alumni Hall on Friday morning. He spoke about the Obama administration’s plans to make college education more accessible and lift some of the financial burden off students after graduation.

The vice president addressed matters that he believes affect Pitt students and their families: the cost of attending college, the consequences of living in America without a college degree and where to look for a job upon graduation.

“I came to talk to you about jobs, your jobs; the jobs that won’t be there when you graduate,” Biden said.

The visit follows President Barack Obama’s stop in the city last month, when he spoke in the South Side about the importance of having Congress pass the American Jobs Act. Two months ago, Obama pitched his job creation proposal. In October, congressional Republicans shot down the full $447 billion jobs package. A few days later, they killed a piece of the proposal that would forestall layoffs of state and government employees.

Pittsburgh has been a hot spot for candidates vying for the presidency in the last few months. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came to the Consol Energy Center two weeks ago for a fundraiser and, less than a week after Obama’s visit, Texas Gov. Rick Perry unveiled his first major policy speech on energy at U.S. Steel’s Irvin Plant in West Mifflin.

Biden mentioned some of the executive orders that Obama has recently issued to help students manage their federal student loans. These include lowering monthly loan repayments to 10 percent of a borrower’s discretionary income and offering borrowers the opportunity to consolidate their student loans.

Biden said that by the end of this year, college students are expected to accumulate more than $1 trillion in student loan debt, which is more than all the credit card debt in America.

He said this is “a huge burden” on students, and his colleagues in Congress are asking, “Should we do anything about it?”

Biden said that this burden is why the creation of a new tax credit, known as the American Opportunity Tax Credit — part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — was one of the first things he and Obama did upon entering office.

The tax credit provided aid to 335,000 Pennsylvanian families, allowing 3 million U.S. students living in households making less than $50,000 a year to attend college. This grant alone, he said, has allowed 3,000 students to attend the University of Pittsburgh.

Biden said that before he lowered his right hand when he was sworn into the vice presidency in 2009, more than 720,000 jobs had been lost due to the recession. As of today, more than 6.8 million jobs have been lost.

Biden continued by stating that the unemployment rate for high school graduates is 9.4 percent, and 4.2 percent for Americans with bachelor’s degrees. Over the next decade, 62 percent of all new jobs will require some sort of secondary degree.

“The progress we’ve made is real, but there’s still so much more to do. The first thing I want to point out to you is that it is worth it,” Biden said. “A college degree matters, not just whether you graduate, but it’s going to matter the rest of your life.”

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg gave a formal welcome at 11:50 a.m. before Student Government Board president Molly Stieber introduced Biden to the students, saying why she thinks Biden chose to come to Pitt.

“I believe it’s because this University has seen its fair share of hardships in the past few months,” Stieber said, explaining the impact of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget cuts to higher education.

Of the students who attended, many of whom are financially struggling to complete their undergraduate educations and go on to graduate school, some said Biden restored their hope.

“I think that America has the opportunity and the capacity to put an academically well-rounded student through school, regardless of their socioeconomic background,” said Ankur Sakaria, a freshman studying political science.

Sakaria has high hopes of attending law school after graduating from Pitt and said Biden’s speech made him feel optimistic about getting through school and easily paying off debt.

Robert Beecher, a sophomore political science, urban studies and philosophy major, and the Western Vice President for Pennsylvania College Democrats, said Biden managed to relate Obama’s national policies to the students.

“He did a very good job of relating the president’s grand agenda for the job economy to students, and the great amount of student debt that most of us are facing,” Beecher said.

[Updated: Nov. 6 at 8:15 p.m.]