375 days to go…

Between last night’s debate, student town halls, and campaign ads, higher education issues are all over the race for the White House. Share this edition of Millennial Memo with your friends and colleagues and sign up for updates to make sure you don’t miss a thing.

CNBC QUESTIONER SAYS CANDIDATES “GLOSSED OVER” STUDENT DEBT AT #CNBCGOPDEBATE: Appearing on a special edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews after the debate, CNBC’s personal finance columnist who asked candidates about their plans to combat student debt had the following response to candidates’ comments on the issue: “[The candidates] were hoping that people don’t really care about the facts, and I think they’re wrong about that. If you talk to the students here at the University of Colorado, they care about student debt. They want to hear what these candidates have to say about it. And the fact that they kind of glossed over the issue, and is something that really matters to them, if they want Millennial votes, if they want a wide range of people in the electorate, they are going to have to answer tough questions.” (Hardball with Chris Matthews, 10/28/2015)

FIORINA SAYS GOVERNMENT CREATED STUDENT LOAN PROBLEM: “You see, folks, this is how socialism starts. Government causes a problem, and then government steps in to solve the problem. This is why, fundamentally, we have to take our government back. The student loan problem has been created by government. Government trying to level the playing field between Internet and brick-and-mortar creates a problem.” (CNBC, 10/28/2015)

RUBIO DETAILS HIS OWN STUDENT DEBT REPAYMENT EXPERIENCE: “Here’s the truth. I didn’t inherit any money. My dad was a bartender, my mother was a maid. They worked hard to provide us the chance at a better life. They didn’t save enough money for us to go to school. I had to work my way through school. I had to borrow money to go to school. I tried, early in my marriage, explaining to my wife why someone named Sallie Mae was taking $1,000 out of our bank account every month… ” (CNBC, 10/28/2015)

KASICH TOUTS PRIVATIZING UNIVERSITY SERVICES IN OHIO: “We are working now to go after the cost drivers in our universities. And let me give you an example. Universities today have so many non-academic assets. At Ohio State they sold the parking garage and the parking lot, and they got $500 million because they shouldn’t be in the parking lot business. They shouldn’t be in the business, they shouldn’t be in the dorm business.” (CNBC, 10/28/2015)

THE NEW YORK TIMES FACT CHECKS KASICH PARKING LOT EXAMPLE: “Gov. John Kasich Ohio said Ohio State University sold a parking lot and garage for $500 million. Wait, $500 million? Was it gold-plated? No, it wasn’t even a lot. Ohio State sold parking services at its sprawling campus to a private Australian investment company for $483 million over 50 years. That’s still a lot of money, but it’s not a half-billion-dollar parking lot.” (The New York Times, 10/28/2015)

KASICH CALLS FOR TURNING DEPT OF ED PROGRAMS INTO 4 BLOCK GRANTS TO BE SENT TO STATES: “My program would move the 104 programs of the federal Department of Education into four block grants, and send them back to the states because income inequality is driven by a lack of skills when kids don’t get what they need to be able to compete and win in this country.” (CNBC, 10/28/2015)

BUSH CALLS FOR REDUCED ROLE OF FED GOV’T IN HIGHER EDUCATION: “We don’t need the Federal Government to be involved in this, because when they do we create a $1.2 trillion debt. In Florida, we have the lowest in-state tuition of any state, because there’s accountability, just as John said. Let the states do this. You’ll create a much better graduation rate at a lower cost, and you won’t indebt the next generation with recourse debt on their backs. It’s always a solution of the left to create more Government from the Federal Government. It is broke, it is not working.” (CNBC, 10/28/2015)

JINDAL CALLS FOR FOR-PROFIT COLLEGE ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH THE MARKET: “Absolutely [for-profit colleges] should be accountable. They should be accountable to their students through the market. Look, you either trust the American people to make their own choices or you don’t. I know the Left thinks we need to be protected from ourselves. President Obama is trying to limit competition to the higher education market. As a result, you’re going to see tuition prices continue to go up. We’ve had $1 trillion of student debt and counting. And he wants to exempt certain schools from the same oversight he wants to apply only to the for-profit market. For some reason, the private sector is a bad word to this president. It’s not in the real world… So, yes, there’s accountability. There’s accountability to students through choice and competition. We don’t need the nanny state to protect us from ourselves.” (CNBC, 10/28/2015)

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CLINTON RELEASES NEW COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY AD SPOTLIGHTING PERSONAL STUDENT DEBT STORY: On Tuesday, the Clinton campaign released a 30-second spot called “Alexis”, saying: “It took Alexis four years to earn her college degree. But it will take her 25 years to pay off her student loans. Join the fight to make college affordable. Join the fight for Alexis.” (YouTube, 10/27/2015)

SANDERS CAMPAIGN BROADCASTS STUDENT TOWN HALL TO 207 COLLEGE CAMPUSES AS CAMPAIGN CONFIRMS YOUTH VOTE IS STRATEGIC PRIORITY: “A central part of the [Sanders]’s strategy is to draw young people and others into the political process, as President Obama did ahead of the 2008 primaries. On Wednesday, Sanders address[ed] an audience of thousands during a ‘student town hall’ meeting…  [that was broadcast to] 207 campuses across the country [where supporters] have organized campus town meetings in gymnasiums, dorms, classrooms and cafeterias as part of his national organizing effort… ‘We understand that if the electorate stagnates, if the usual suspects show up to vote, that we will probably lose,’ said Tad Devine, Sanders’ senior strategist. ‘But we believe that if we can change the composition of the electorate by getting young people involved and others … we can create a very strong coalition to help him win the nomination and help Democrats win the general election.’” (USA Today, 10/27/2015)

MEASURING UP MILLENNIALS: An average of the last two ABC News/Washington Post surveys showed Clinton with 45% and Sanders with 38% among registered Democratic-leaning voters under 30, according to Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates and the pollster for ABC News. (USA Today, 10/27/2015)

Critical New Protections for Students, Borrowers, and Taxpayers, Medium, Undersecretary Ted Mitchell

Budget bill rider would allow student debt collectors to robocall your cellphone, The Washington Post, Danielle Douglas-Gabriel

Higher Education 2016: Evaluating Candidate Proposals, Urban Institute, Sandy Baum & Matthew Chingos