It is an issue in the upcoming 2012 election that we as college students can all relate to, and that’s the issue of student loans. The candidates differ drastically in this category of where they stand in the fight against an affordable higher education.

A major aspect in the fight against student loans is where each president stands on the issuing and funding of Pell Grants. A Pell Grant is “a program that awards money to eligible undergraduate students.” The difference between Pell Grants and standard forms of financial aid is that Pell Grants do not require repayment. They are “needs-based grants that are intended to provide low-income students access to post-secondary education.”

Obama’s party promotes Pell Grants and intends on continuing to fund more and more money to the program. In fact according to Fastweb.com, Barack Obama has increased the number of Pell Grant recipients from 6 to 9 million. He also believes that the eligibility in order to apply for a Pell Grant should not reduce any further.

Currently, the maximum amount of a Pell Grant is $5,500, and Obama would like to see that number increase. He claims that since he has been in office, he has “more than doubled the total amount of funding available for Pell Grants.”

Mitt Romney has a different view on Pell Grants. Although Romney doesn’t see Pell Grants as a bad thing his running mate, Paul Ryan, is not in any struggling college student’s favor.

Ryan’s budget”, Paul Ryan’s 2013 budget resolution, would do nothing but destroy the system of Pell Grants.

Ryan wants to put more limitations of Pell Grants in order to make them harder to retain. Romney called for a “roll-back of the student loan reform” in order to funnel money back through private banks. He wants to refocus Pell Grant dollars on the students that need them most, but who is it that determines who needs them most?

The Romney campaign wants to lower the income-level of persons applying for a Pell Grant, while also creating a maximum income to be eligible for a grant, while reducing “the amount of income a student or family can keep to cover minimal living expenses before being expected to contribute toward college costs. Romney’s party also wants to keep that maximum Pell Grant number frozen at $5,500 and not a penny more.

According to Education Trust and USnews.com, under Romney and Ryan’s plan more than 1 million students would no longer be eligible for Pell Grants in the next decade and those would did quality would receive less aid. This would do a disservice to millions of needy students.

The Obama administration changed the loan system so that all federal loans will originate directly with the federal government, rather than through private banks. This essentially means cutting out the middle man, and by cutting out that middle man this plan is expected to save about $60 billion dollars within the next 10 years.

It’s not about the quickness of time that things are happening, it’s about the importance and the significance of the events that pass by. Good things take time, and Obama’s main goal is to have the world’s highest population of college graduates by 2020. He also wants to use our very own community colleges to his favor by creating the Community College Career Fund. This will put more and more community colleges in secure partnerships with job aid and internships with private businesses, giving students a college they can afford with benefits that they thought they couldn’t.

Mitt Romney’s plan for education, “A Chance for Every Child”Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Problems of American Education isn’t as straight-to-the-point as Obama’s. In fact the plan is very unclear. At one end Romney believes that education should be “available and affordable to all students. On the other hand, Romney is encouraging college students to “shop around” and look at different schools, while also insinuating students should be able to borrow money from their parents in order to fund their college experience. These ideas and plans have a lot to do with Romney’s ‘special relationship’ with for-profit colleges.

Barack Obama said, “Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree” and as we as college students are beginning to see, 10 years is approaching seemingly quickly as we scramble to attempt to find a secure job after college.