Mitt Romney on College Tuition

This footage was recorded by American Bridge trackers at the following events:

0:00 - 0:18
Mitt Romney Townhall 08/24/11, Garfton County Senior Center.
Romney: I became governor and we had to cut back on our state funding of institutions of higher learning.  WE cut back - I don't recall the exact percent but it was as much as 10% in some cases.    Im - Im not one who says we need to be sending more federal money to state schools and universities and colleges in general.

0:18 - 0:32
12/17/2011
Romney and Governor Nikki Haley Hold a Town Hall Meeting 12/17/2011, Memminger Auditorium 56 Beaufain Street, Charleston SC
Questioner: I'm in dental school and I took out a ton of federally subsidized loans and they're at like 7.9% interest. Can you do anything about that?
Romney: (that's inflation?) Hopefully get you a real good job that gets you real good pay

0:33 - 1:02
Mitt Romney Townhall 03/05/11, Taylor-Winfield, Youngstown, OH
Romney:My-My best advice is find a great institution of higher learning.  Find one that has the right price  - shop around.  In America this idea of competition - it works and don't just go to the one that has the highest price, go to one that has a little lower price where you can get a good education and hopefully you'll find that and don't take on too much debt and don't expect the government to forgive the debt that you take on.  I know it would be popular for me to stand up and say Im going to give you government money to make sure to pay for your college but Im not going to promise that.

1:03 - End
Mitt Romney Townhall 02/29/2012. Capital University Bexley, Ohio.
Questioner:  I just started - sorry - I just started law school and they are doing away with unsubsidized loans for grad students which makes it almost impossible  to pay off our debts, have a house, have a car, have a family, before we retire.  What are you going to do for people like me?
Romney: Uh you know I wish I could tell you that there is a place to find really cheap money or free money and we could pay for everyone's education - that's just not going to happen.  What's going to have to happen is we're going to have to have rates as low as we can possibly have.  I'd like to see more competition in the lenders.  Now the government is taking over the student loan business I think it gets less competition, I'd rather have more competition with private lenders as well as governmental lenders.  I would like to have more competition between schools so I hoped you shopped around and looked - and tried an find a school that has the lowest possible tuition.  I don't want to say anything about this great university here but my guess is that you are careful thinking about tuition here.  You are not here right?  Okay.  And so from my stand point we have to compete and higher education is going to have to learn to live within its means.  If for some reason  we said tomorrow the federal government is going to give to every  student $20,000 a year to help with tuition - thats not going to happen - but lets just pretend they did.  Guess what would happen to tuition about a year later? It would go up about $20,000 a tear.  And so when government gives out free money then people who want to get that money find ways to raise the rates to get their hands  on it.  THe right course for America is for businesses and and universities and colleges to compete for us to make sure that we provide loans to the extent we possibly can at an interest rate that doesn't have the taxpayers having to subsidize people who want to go to school.    I want people to go to school, I want them to have loans if they need that help, I want them to pay them back.  And I can tell you this, I know there will be some on who get up in a setting like this and talk about how they are going to give you a bunch of government money, free stuff and if thats what you want in a president, well you already got that president.  That's not who I am alright, Im going to tell you that I'm going to live within our means, we are not going to spend more than we take in.  I want to make sure that when you come out of law school you got a great job and for that to happen I got to make sure government doesn't get big and take too much and thats my priority, thank you.

• Category

  News & Politics