2008 Woodie Awards
Sarbanes talks affordability
Tyler Waldman
Special | 4/10/08
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Towson's division of student affairs, The New York Times, and the American Democracy Project sponsored the event held in the University Union Chesapeake Rooms.
As the 3rd district representative, Sarbanes serves parts of Baltimore City and parts of Baltimore, Anne Arundel, and Howard Counties. During the session, he discussed a January article in The New York Times and his letter to the editor responding to it. The Jan. 22 op-ed, titled "Ivy-League Letdown," discussed universities' efforts to make college tuition more affordable for students.
His response, printed Feb. 1, discussed legislation he sponsored in 2007 to allow the federal government to better assist students.
Sarbanes' plan, outlined in the Education for Public Service Act, would provide federal student loan forgiveness to graduates who go on to spend at least 10 years in a public service job.
The act will provide "additional support from the government to back institutional efforts" to defray the cost of college tuition, Sarbanes said.
The bill passed and took effect Oct. 1, 2007. Sarbanes said he hopes the bill motivates students to consider careers in local, state, and federal government.
"I'm hoping that when they take a look at [the bill] and they see the opportunity to get some significant debt relief, that it'll be an incentive for them to do these public service jobs, and I think there's many people here at this campus that, if they have that interest, could really take advantage of this Education for Public Service Act," Sarbanes said.
The bill would provide a certain amount of forgiveness based on a formula for "financial hardship," using a student's adjusted gross income. While some participants in the discussion raised concerns that it is an unnecessary use of federal funds, Sarbanes cited numerous conversations with people in federal agencies, who said that the bill would assist recruiting and training efforts.
In the next two years, the federal government will have over 200,000 "mission-critical" job openings, Sarbanes said, with over 500,000 general openings over the next three to four years.
"There's millions of people that work in the government arena, and so when you start thinking about generational attrition, you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of jobs," he said.
Discussion at the "Times Talk" was not limited to the bill.
Sarbanes also talked about his feelings on the Democratic presidential primary, his uncommitted status as a super delegate, and the hardships of campaigning for reelection every two years as a House of Representatives member.
After the discussion, Sarbanes said he thought the event went very well.
"I enjoyed it. I hope the students enjoyed it as well. I thought it was a good give and take," he said.
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