Following the first presidential debate, it seemed that Governor Mitt Romney was gaining some momentum against our President Barack Obama. Unfortunately for Romney, his momentum has completely stalled. According to the most recent polls, Obama is in the lead of both the national vote and electoral map. FiveThirtEight’s Nate Silver sees no hope of victory for Mitt Romney: “Mitt Romney has always had difficulty drawing a winning Electoral College hand. Even during his best period of polling, in the week or two after the first presidential debate in Denver, he never quite pulled ahead in the polling averages in Ohio and other states that would allow him to secure 270 electoral votes.” “But the most recent set of polls suggest another problem for Mr. Romney, whose momentum in the polls stalled out in mid-October. Instead, it is President Obama who is making gains.” Silver’s projection gives Obama a 92% chance of winning the election.

President Obama is trying to woo some swing voters who are parents and college students by promising to halve growth cost of college over the next ten years. Even with these reductions, students, on average, would be paying $23,000 a year by 2022-2023. “I want to cut the growth of tuition in half over the next 10 years,” he declared today at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. “That’s my plan. That’s what change is. That’s what we’re fighting for in this election.” College costs currently grow by 5 percent early. At the current rate, government-run institutions are climbing 6%, pegging the cost of them at $35,000 for the 2022-2023 school year. The cost of a public college on average was $15,000 in 2010. The cost of private institutions is growing at a slightly slower rate at 4 percent, pegging it at $60,000 by 2022-2023. Total student debt has risen to more than $1 trillion. This has been one of Obama’s biggest campaign promises, as he knows the young voters came out in large numbers to support him in 2008, and he is looking for a similar turnout in order to win this election.

The devastating toll that the sluggish economic recovery has taken on America’s students became clear today as it was revealed that the average graduate from the class of 2011 piled up $26,600 in debt. That figure is up five percent from the previous year – and just one third of students managed to finish college without any debt at all. With unemployment for new graduates running at 8.8 percent, many are having difficulty finding a way to pay off their loans, as one in ten is forced to default on the debt within just two years. The figures showing that those who borrowed owed over $25,000 were revealed on Thursday in a report by the Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS). Since they do not include graduates of for-profit colleges, who typically borrow more than the average, they almost certainly understate the total extent of the debt held by graduates. Nonetheless, a college degree remains a good investment – the unemployment rate for those who hold only a high-school diploma was a staggering 19.1 per cent last year. ‘In these tough times, a college degree is still your best bet for getting a job and decent pay,’ said TICAS President Lauren Asher. ‘But, as debt levels rise, fear of loans can prevent students from getting the education they need to succeed.’ Debt levels vary widely by state, ranging from $17,250 in Utah to $32,450 in New Hampshire. Private student loans, which have weaker protections than federal loans, accounted for around one fifth of the debt owed by the class of 2011. The latest figures come at a time of increasing alarm about the scope of student debt nationally, which by some measures has surpassed $1trillion. Recent government figures show nearly 10 per cent of borrowers of federal student loans in the most recently measured cohort had already defaulted within two years of starting repayment. The issue has come up on the presidential campaign trail. President Barack Obama has touted his record of ending $60billion in subsidies to private lenders, directing the savings to student aid and implementing an income-based repayment plan that caps federal student loan payments at 15 per cent of income and forgives repayment after 25 years. Republican challenger Mitt Romney argues the flood of federal student aid spending unleashed in recent years has led colleges to raise tuition prices. He wants to return to a system in which the government supports private lenders, and his campaign has called the income-based repayment program flawed. In Tuesday night’s second presidential debate, Romney repeated an assertion he had made previously that ’50 per cent of kids coming out of college [are] not able to get work.’ Figures analysed by Northeastern University last spring found 53.6 per cent of bachelor’s degree holders under the age of 25 were either unemployed or working in positions that do not fully use their skills or knowledge. The latest TICAS report also cites studies that found more than one-third of recent graduates were in positions that did not require a degree. ‘Increasing student debt in a weak economy can be a knock-out blow to many considering college,’ said Rich Williams, higher education advocate with U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which advocates for students. ‘As our economy is recovering, lawmakers must send every signal that college is a good investment. ‘