Health Management

"And it's surely to their credit": Young voters engage on the issues
By: Nina Coutinho and Caitlin Howarth

Last night, college students came home from their part-time jobs, put down their RedBull and Dante, and spoke up about the Presidential debate. With a failing economy and thousands of dollars in debt, current college students are far from disinterested.

They're not the only ones.  Most young people between the ages of 18 and 24 didn't come home from a part-time job or have a class to study for the next day.  They came home from a full-time job - or jobs - and many never had the money to pursue a four-year degree.

For all of them, this economic crisis is about more than credit and fewer jobs.  It's a crisis for opportunity itself.  A young person starting their career today averages $20,000 in debt and has fewer job options at lower pay than in recent years.  And what young people are calling for is a serious investment in America; freezing us in place will only accelerate our rapid decline.

Last night, the Roosevelt Institution, a national student policy organization, held a substantive debate of their own. Students across the country live-blogged the Presidential debate and discussed their own policy critiques and ideas.  They came together to talk about the issues that mattered most to them - and not surprisingly, those issues were far more varied than just textbooks and tuition rates.  These students have done more than read news coverage and watch the debates; they actively investigate, discuss, and develop solutions for the problems that the country faces.  Here are a few things they had to say during the live blogging session last night:

On health care:
"The cost v. coverage debate is a false dichotomy. The uninsured cost us about 240 billion a year . . . Not to mention it's easier to implement cost saving measures if everyone is covered."
- Alex Hertel-Fernandez, Senior Fellow for Economics and Health Care (Northwestern University)

On education and performance pay for teachers:
"[The problem] comes from setting a universal standard of performance across state and local boundaries in which different populations require different educational needs. Urban environments vs. Rural environments; Men vs. Women; low income vs. high income.....teachers can't be expected to perform on the same level of performance across the board when the people writing the performance pay legislation come from predominately privileged backgrounds; [it's] unfair to students and to teachers."
-Abby McCartney, Senior Fellow for Education (Yale University)

On off-shore drilling:
"The off-shore drilling that Obama has "caved" on makes sense. He has said that he won't pursue it, but it will likely be stuck on as a Christmas ornament to any energy package. Its just political reality."
- Dan Blue, Michigan State University and co-director of the Roosevelt Midwest Region's "Go Green" initiative

On the national deficit:
"Reducing the deficit has to come from both sides. You can't just modify spending, you have to adjust the tax structures. And here he goes again talking about pork barrel [spending]. Pork barrel? That's 3% [of federal spending]."
-  Patrick Dorsey, University of Virginia

On housing and mortgage assistance:
"Giving mortgage assistance can be a very useful tool, but the problem with HOLC was twofold: it used blatantly racist standards (redlining communities based on levels of African American populations) and used a geographic heuristic that didn't make a lot of economic sense. New plans could definitely work, but the HOLC that McCain mentioned might not be a good model."
-   Daniel Townsend, Senior Fellow and Head Strategist for Economic Development (Yale University)

It has been suggested that it could be the civic duty of many Americans, especially young people, to not vote; that we are the "Vote or Die" generation, going to the polls because a hip-hop star told us to, and without a nuanced understanding of politics and policy.  Campaigns have always been built on the backs of young people, but it is time for candidates and critics to appreciate our voices as well. Across the board, student responses to last night's debate were sophisticated, both in their grasp of the topics and their political awareness. The Youth Vote is informed, active and here to stay.