Minnesota is a great place to live, work, raise a family and do business. We offer a great quality of life and highly skilled workers thanks to our historical commitment to education and strong communities.
On Thursday, September 18, the Department of Employment and Economic Development released its monthly jobs report for the month of August – and it reflects the positive economic momentum we’ve seen over the past two years. In August 2014, Minnesota employers added over 6,000 jobs, bringing our total over the past 12 months to 56,311 jobs, a 2 percent growth rate compared with a U.S. growth rate of 1.8 percent. In addition, our unemployment rate fell to 4.3 percent, the lowest unemployment rate we’ve seen in nearly 8 years.
As Minnesota’s economy grows stronger, our challenge ahead is expanding the number of jobs that pay living wages and allow workers to provide for themselves and their families – a key priority in building a ‘middle-class economy’ that works for everyone. One essential ingredient for progress toward that goal is making sure Minnesotans are able to obtain a college degree needed to secure a better job, but without accumulating a vast amount of debt.
Right now, students attending our state’s public colleges and universities like the U of MN and MnSCU are benefiting from the second year of a two year tuition freeze after years of sharp increases. All students – including those attending Carleton College and St. Olaf – are benefiting from the largest investment in financial aid in over a decade. This was a good start that positioned our state to make more progress in the years ahead.
In 2015, college affordability and student debt relief must be major priorities at the legislature. That’s why I’m supporting a plan released by legislative leaders earlier this week that would extend the current tuition freeze until 2017 and expand options to reduce student debt by:
1) Expanding loan forgiveness assistance to college graduates that fill jobs in vital fields in Greater Minnesota. This initiative would target areas of Minnesota that are experiencing “brain drain” by helping students that return to their communities in high demand jobs pay off debt. Students would receive 20 percent of outstanding student loan repaid up to $3,000 per year if they are working in a qualifying job in Greater Minnesota.
2) Providing debt relief to college graduates that fill jobs in critical areas as part of ServeMinnesota, the state’s administrator for AmeriCorps. This program would expand opportunities within the ServeMinnesota program so that eligible graduates could have debt forgiven even faster.
By reducing debt, college graduates will have more money to save for major purchases like a new car or home – the kinds of things that help make our economy more stable and prosperous for all. According to a report released this week, over 400,000 new home sales will not happen this year because of high levels of student debt, a loss of about $83 billion for our nation’s housing market.
Reducing student debt is not only good for our economy, it’s the right thing to do. Please contact me with any ideas or feedback on college affordability.