College Kids Call for Change

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:45:38 -0400
college-students, debt-ceiling, democracy, irc, news, obama, politics, umbc, usdemocrazy

There has been a call for change…a phone call, that is.

College student body Presidents representing over 120 campuses have banded together to ask the grown ups to act their age.

These student politicians are demanding real politicians in Washington place the welfare of the nation before partisan politics and come to some sort of compromise on the debt ceiling.

Their concerns were laid out in a letter read at a press conference, seen here:

Their worries seem well-founded, as Washington remains predictably gridlocked.

President Obama has given their concerns consideration, and took the time to address the student body Presidents on a conference call.

Although the details of the call were not released to the media, participants have described the tone of the call as “engaged”.

Students remain concerned that young people already deeply affected by the recession will bear the brunt of the consequences if a compromise is not reached.

The younger generation has been plagued by high unemployment rates. For June 2011, the national unemployment rate was 9.2%. Yet for 20-24 year olds the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 14.5%, and for 16-19 year olds it was 24.5%.

Carlos Reyes, a Georgetown University graduate who helped draft the letter explained,

“We thought it was important to give a voiceless generation a voice in this process. Washington often kicks the can and the can is usually us, but this time the can is kicking back.”