Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, ASU students rally to cut loan debt
Nov 10, 2015, 4:50 PM
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (in red dress, middle right), meets with Arizona State University students to discuss solutions to the nation's student loan debt crisis. (KTAR Photo/Corbin Carson)
(KTAR Photo/Corbin Carson)
PHOENIX — Rep. Kyrsten Sinema met with a group of Arizona State University students Tuesday to call for a solution to mounting student loan debt in America.
“I have student loan debt of nearly $50,000, and I’m a sitting member of Congress,” Sinema said. “It impedes you from buying your first car, from buying your first home, from starting a family.”
Frankly, it stops kids from getting their chance at the American dream, she said.
Sinema said she has supported many different pieces of legislation but is having trouble getting a bill through a gridlocked Congress.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to have college be affordable and attainable for all Americans,” she said.
The National Education Association’s “Degrees not Debt” campaign will also call on Congress to include a Student Aid Bill of Rights in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which Congress is expected to consider later this year.
Arizona students had the fifth-lowest student debt in the nation in 2014. Students finished their schooling at four-year, non-profit schools with an average bill of $22,609.
The Obama administration approved two new regulations last month designed to help curb student debt.
