As the Democratic primary approaches, Milwaukee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett sat down with students at Memorial Union Thursday, saying graduates face a grim job market and that he is the strongest candidate to face Gov. Scott Walker in a recall election.
During the discussion, Barrett said the student loan crisis is not the only huge problem for students; they also face rising tuition and growing unemployment.
Barrett said when last year’s budget came out, there was a $15 million cut to Milwaukee’s budget. He said he was forced to make a choice between making people pay more for their health insurance or laying people off.
“I chose not to lay people off, and I was thinking about your generation when I made that decision,” Barrett said. “If people are laid off, what do people in their 20s do? They are just coming out of school, and they won’t be able to get jobs.”
Former Dane County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Falk has also stressed the importance of solving the student loan crisis and released a plan earlier last week that said her campaign would fix it.
Falk’s plan would implement statewide consumer protections for students and parents and inform them of all the facts surrounding student loans and the strings that may be attached.
The plan also recommends leveraging federal resources and creating a debt relief pipeline for Wisconsin graduates. In the plan, Falk would work to assist graduates and families facing insurmountable debt by coordinating with the new federal Income Based Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Plans.
“Her plan focuses state government on the student loan debt crisis,” Falk spokesperson Roshni Nedungadi said. “It’s a crisis the state of Wisconsin can no longer afford to ignore. The stakes are far too high.”
Barrett also said the reason he has been the main target of Walker’s ads is because Walker’s campaign does not want him to face Walker in the general election because they believe Barrett is the candidate who can beat them.
“If you turn on a TV and watch for more than three hours, you’re going to see an ad attacking me right now,” Barrett said. “There are four Democratic candidates, and they are all good. But you look at what the goal is and I’m the strongest candidate because Republicans are spending every penny they can to keep me out of the general.”
Walker’s campaign targeted Barrett in TV ad last week, criticizing his handling of Milwaukee’s poverty and unemployment.
The ad said Milwaukee was third in the nation for unemployment and fourth in the nation for poverty.
“Tom Barrett has failed in Milwaukee for eight years. Don’t let him take Wisconsin backwards,” the narrator said in the ad.
A poll released Wednesday shows Walker leading Barrett by one percentage point in a recall election, while Barrett leads all other Democratic contenders in the recall.
Walker leads Barrett 48 percent to 47 percent of all likely voters and 47 to 46 percent of all registered voters, which falls within the margin of error. Barrett also leads Falk 38 to 21 percent in the Democratic primary race.
