Hillary Clinton caused an unexpected dustup recently when she tweeted on August 12th: “How does your student loan debt make you feel? Tell us in 3 emojis or less.”
The angry responses from students and others were blistering.
My personal favorite response to this tweet was: “Hillary, COLLEGE STUDENTS CAN USE WORDS.”
Though Hillary’s tweet was callous and insensitive, no doubt — I feel deeply thankful that presidential candidates are even thinking about this critically important issue.
From my perspective as an author, consultant, and speaker who helps parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free and move directly into careers they excel at and love, I’d like to offer this year’s crop of presidential candidates one piece of advice:
Please stop talking about making public college free for all college students. Please. Just. Stop.
It’s ridiculous.
You’re going to end up paying huge college bills for kids who don’t care enough about your gift to even get up and go to class in the morning.
Instead, pay for the college educations of kids who are working hard and succeeding in their college classes.
Pay for college for kids who get up at 7 am so that they can walk to 8 am Physics classes in driving sleet and rain. Pay for college for kids who patiently take notes in classes and then review them afterward. Pay for college for kids who seek out help from professors and tutors when they get stuck on difficult concepts. Pay for college for kids who work hard on papers and who sit in polished library carrels quizzing themselves until they know the material backward and forward.
Pay for college for kids who get good grades.
These kids are our country’s future. Take your $350 billion, Hillary, and invest it in these kids — and in ten years you’ll really have something.
My recommendation for presidential candidates:
Take the billions of dollars you plan to sink into higher education and use it to pay the college tuitions and student loan balances of kids who’ve earned high grades.
I have thousands of serious, high achieving blog followers who are just waiting for you to do this.
Would you like free, clear, step-by-step help getting your kids through college debt-free?
Subscribe to my weekly email newsletter using the form on this site, and then open it every single time it lands in your email inbox. For up-to-the-minute help for your individual situation, click on your child’s age in the “WHAT TO DO WHEN” section on this website.
What do you think about this topic? If you had $350 billion to spend on relieving student loan debt, what do you think would be the fairest, best way to spend it? Comment below, or LIKE Jeannie Burlowski Author on Facebook and let’s talk about it there.
Do you have friends who are currently either in college, parenting college students, or struggling to pay off large student loan debt balances? SHARE this post on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin right now.
Who is Jeannie Burlowski?
Jeannie Burlowski is a full-time consultant, author, and conference speaker. She helps parents set their kids up to graduate college debt-free and move directly into careers they excel at and love. Her book LAUNCH: How to Get Your Kids Through College Debt Free and Into Jobs They Love Afterward is due out within months. You can find Jeannie’s free, clear, step-by-step help for parents in the “WHAT TO DO WHEN” section on this website. Follow her on Twitter @JBurlowski.
“We only got around to doing a fraction of what Jeannie tells people to do in the free help on her website, and we saved well over $50,000 on college costs. Our daughter earned a four year degree from an excellent private university at age 20, and she’s now in California happily working her dream job at Disney. Get to one of Jeannie’s live classes if you can. Buy a plane ticket if you have to!” — Liz and Tim Weatherhead, parents, Bloomington, MN