Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling and other Democrats hosted a listening session on student loan debt at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Monday. Some at the meeting said both parties aren’t doing enough to solve the problem.
Alfonso Gunaratnam is a sophomore at UWL. Before the listening session, he said he didn’t know a lot about the Democrats’ student loan refinancing bill, but he isn’t a fan of Republican plans for college affordability.
“I’d like to see the governor like addressing four-year universities more than technical colleges and two-years. I feel like that’s the majority in the state,” Gunaratnam said.
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Shilling, along with Democratic state Reps. Jill Billings and Steve Doyle said students should be able to refinance their loans like a mortgage or a car loan. They encouraged students to send that message to GOP lawmakers.
At the end of the session, Gunaratnam said he thinks refinancing could be a positive option for students. But overall, he worries that it won’t be enough,.
“I mean it doesn’t really change how I feel about student loan debt, I’m still going to have to take it on and obviously I’m nervous about it,” he said.
Republicans are considering their own package of bills to address the issue.
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