Gov. Walker Promotes College Affordability
Last week, Governor Walker toured technical colleges across the state in an effort to shine a light on student debt issues in Wisconsin. The Governor touted his recent actions, including legislation that created a student loan debt specialist position, need based grants for college students, and froze tuition for UW System students.
During his tour, he continued to promote the need for further legislation to continue to make college more affordable. “If a student and a family has to take out less debt to begin with because they don’t have as much to pay for, that’s the best way to deal with student loan debt,” said Walker.
Though the Governor’s message was positive, many are skeptical of his efforts. While the Governor visited Fox Valley Technical College, Sen. Dave Hansen (R-Green Bay) made the following statement, “If the Governor were truly serious about helping the one million Wisconsin residents struggling with student debt he would support Democratic efforts to help them refinance their loans at lower interest rates – like Minnesota, Rhode Island and other state are already doing.”
Education is predicted to be a main issue in the coming 2017-2018 legislative session. Though the Governor will not reveal his budget plan until February 2017, he has made his education goals clear, “one of the things on the table might be trying to figure out a way to reduce tuition and actually have a reeducation at all of our University of Wisconsin campuses.”