Obama courts student voters

President Barack Obama thinks you should know how Pitt spends your tuition money.

That topic,… President Barack Obama thinks you should know how Pitt spends your tuition money.

That topic, among others, came up in his half-hour conference call with student journalists yesterday. The president spoke about several issues, ranging from defense of his record on economic and health care reform to the upcoming midterm elections, as part of a campaign to encourage student-voter turnout in November.

He even took a moment to comment on the good fortunes of Penn State and UCLA football, offering reporters from each school a quick congratulations.

As part of a question-and-answer session, Obama spoke about controlling the cost of tuition at public universities. He said that he intends to work with universities in the future to address rising costs. He did not specify how he plans to work with them.

Obama said that amenities at public universities might be one reason for rising costs. He pointed to stadiums, cafeterias and living costs as areas that typically soak up tuition dollars.

“It’s sure a lot nicer than it was when I was going to college. Someone has to pay for that,” he said. “You’re not going to university to join a spa, you’re going there to learn so you can have a fulfilling career.”

He said that universities need to be more open about costs, so that students can make informed decisions.

“There should be a pie chart at every university that says out of every dollar you spend in tuition, here’s where your money is going.”

Pitt officials could not be immediately reached for comment about Obama’s proposals.

Obama said the federal government can help public universities more by improving the ailing economy. A recovered economy, he said, will allow for states to contribute more funding for public higher education.

He did not address the federal stimulus funding, which has supplemented the budgets of many public universities — including Pitt — for the past two years.

Part of his plan for higher education includes putting more focus on the country’s community colleges and reforming the way people handle debt.

Starting in 2014, Obama said, borrowers will be able to limit student loan payments to 10 percent of their income, and public-service jobs like teaching and police work will allow some school debt to be forgiven after 10 years.

Later in the call, he criticized the Republican Party’s “Pledge to America” plan, which he said would include cuts to higher education funding. He said that as many as 8 million students could lose some federal student loan money if the plan ever becomes law.

Michael Barley, the spokesman for the state Republican party, said that Obama was not being entirely straightforward with that claim.

“It seems like a disingenuous way of campaigning,” Barley said. “I think he’s drawing his own conclusions.”

The “Pledge to America” plan aims to make sure students can find jobs when they graduate, Barley said.

The 48-page “Pledge to America” does not specifically mention federal funding for higher education. It includes sections on ending federal stimulus funding — some of which has gone to higher education — and repealing the health care reform law, which reformed the disbursement of student loans.

Barley called Obama’s criticism “scare tactics” and said they were a sign that the president was on the defensive in the face of a wave of Republican gains in November.

Obama said that the call — and his speech scheduled for today at the University of Wisconsin — would try to draw out the college-aged voters who turned out in large numbers for the 2008 election. As many as 11 percent of voters reported that they were first-time voters in 2008, according to CNN.

Roughly two-thirds of voters younger than 30 voted for Obama in 2008, according to CNN.

The excitement during that election came from people who “just generally thought that we had to bring about some fundamental changes in how we operate,” Obama said.

Since people have seen him struggle with Congress, and as the difficult political atmosphere in Washington has taken the national spotlight, “naturally some of the excitement and enthusiasm has drained away,” he said.

Alejandra Salinas, the president of the College Democrats of America, said that she had seen a rebirth of the excitement from the 2008 election over the past several months.

She said that Obama has made great strides since coming into office, when the economy was shedding about 800,000 jobs a month.

Partly because of this, Salinas said, voters haven’t be turned off by the difficulties of the past two years.

“I’ve heard nothing but good things,” she said. “Students are very engaged, and it is not just the ones who voted for Obama in 2008.”

She said that College Democrats helped many freshmen and sophomores, who hadn’t been old enough to vote for Obama in 2008, to register.

“I think this is a new generation of more engaged, more aware voters,” Salinas said.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Tory Mazzola said that an increase in young-voter turnout won’t necessarily hurt Republicans.

“More voter involvement is always a better thing,” he said. “I think both sides can agree on that.”

He said that the National Republican Congressional Committee often works with College Republicans and other groups to reach out to young voters. And recently, he said, they have made progress.

“People don’t believe that government is fundamentally the solution to their problems,” he said. “More and more young people are looking to us for an alternative.”

Polls conducted nationwide and in Pennsylvania seem to favor Republicans this fall.

Almost 50 percent of Republicans said they were excited for the November election, as opposed to 28 percent of Democrats nationwide, according to a Sept. 20 Gallup poll. Another Gallup poll showed that about 45 percent of people would vote for a generic Republican over a generic Democrat.

At least four historically conservative districts in Pennsylvania held by Democrats have serious Republican challengers this year.

The Republican candidates for senator and governor in Pennsylvania — Pat Toomey and Attorney General Tom Corbett — have consistently led their Democratic opponents, Congressman Joe Sestak and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, in polls.

Obama will speak today at the University of Wisconsin as part of the “Moving America Forward” campaign, hoping to encourage youth involvement in the upcoming election and touting plans for reforming higher education. Vice President Joe Biden will speak at a rally at Penn State University.