CSUN On Point

Common sense would suggest that candidates for powerful elective office be knowledgeable and experienced, but some of this year’s presidential candidates seem to be using their lack of experience in government as a selling point.

The United States is one year away from electing its next president, and the leading candidates — Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Ben Carson — are all trying, in one way or another, to sell themselves to voters as ‘outsiders.’

“There are no outsiders really,” Pierce College Political Science Professor Denise Robb said. “We always end up with the person experienced in government. An outsider would be someone with no experience. Trump, for example, is an outsider.”

Trump is a billionaire real estate mogul and TV personality on NBC’s ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’.

Carson, Trump’s closest competitor, is an author, philanthropist and retired neurosurgeon, who became famous for separating conjoined twins.“I am never going to be politically correct since I am not a politician,” he said during an appearance on CNN.

On the Democratic side, Clinton and Sanders have both been spent decades working in government and politics, yet both are trying to adopt this ‘outsider’ label.

Article II, Section I of the Constitution says that in order to run for the office of president, a candidate must be a natural born citizen of the U.S.; he or she must be thirty-five years of age or older, and have at least a fourteen year residency in the country. Even though these basic qualifications to run for office aren’t much, some experts say voters consider more than that.

“American politics is determined by money,” Los Angeles Valley College History Professor Michael Powelson said. “The reason why Trump is leading is because he’s a multimillionaire. With money you can do what you want despite the [lack of an] education.”

Powelson said he thinks that no matter which candidate wins, there will be only one true victor: “Wall Street.”

Still, Powelson said he doesn’t believe these ‘outsider’ candidates have a chance of making it to the national elections.

“Hillary Clinton is going to be the Democratic nominee, especially now that [Vice-President Joseph] Biden has said he’s not going to run, and Bernie’s numbers are starting to fizzle,” CSUN Political Science Professor Tyler Hughes said.

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Carrying the weight of thousands of dollars in student loan debt is the new trend these days.

Increasing college and university tuition rates are resulting in higher debt costs for students who have to take out loans. The Experian Credit Bureau news blog reported that 40 million Americans now have one or more outstanding student loans, with balances increasing each year.

The Economist reported that student loan debt has increased to a record breaking $1.2 trillion, up 84 percent since the recession.

“I think that there just has been such a disconnect between the colleges and the loan systems,” Certified Financial Planner Shannah Game said. “The loan systems are run by the federal government, and there is just quite a disconnect between the price increases of colleges, and the student loan system trying to keep up with that.”

The federal government has changed laws on who can borrow and how much. According to Game, colleges and the government are not working together, causing this to be a much bigger problem than needed.

President Obama has signed an executive order called The Student Aid Bill of Rights, highlighting four main ways for getting students access to a better college experience, without the stress of hefty loan debt.

One of them is having enough information to choose an affordable loan repayment plan.

“When students are ready to pay back these loans, let them know what their options are; don’t just say you got to pay and that’s it,” CSUN Financial Aid Counselor Gregorio Alcantar said. “Let them know that, for example, there’s more than ten repayment plans available, so you can guarantee that you will make your payments.”

Entry-level job salaries are not always enough to compensate for the high monthly payments for each loan, and some students will still be unemployed by the time the first payment is due, making it difficult to pay the loans back.

The biggest question is, are students getting the education they pay for? or borrow for, as the case may be?

According to Pierce College Economics professor Dr. Pamela Brown, Americans are living longer and going to school longer. Students should consider college as a first step towards a career and choose their majors wisely, so that they will be making enough money to pay back their student loans as quickly as possible.

“If you pick Irish macramé of the 1820s as your master’s degree, it’s not going to be as affordable to pay back that loan, ” Brown said. “As I tell all my students, if you’re unemployed after college, it may not be the economy that’s the problem, it might be your major.”

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