If elected, the leading Democratic candidate will also invest in STEM education and push to connect more U.S. houses to the internet. MarketWatch reported this news alongside several statistics indicating why Clinton decided to move student loans’ financial disincentive to create new businesses off of the shoulders of young entrepreneurs: That group of young people now have one more reason to cast a vote for the democratic front-runner this election cycle. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s rival, ran on promises of free college, so Clinton’s decision to announce her plan in support of STEM education and reducing student loans today may well be influenced by the need to draw members of the democratic party who previously supported Sanders. Clinton previously launched a $350 billion college affordability plan in 2015, aimed at offering a debt-free public university education to all. Student debt may be in part to blame for the fall off in small business formation. A 2015 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found a correlation between rising student debt and falling entrepreneurship. That data is backed up by millennials themselves. Nearly 40% of young people who are interested in starting a business say their student loan payments affect their ability to do so, according to a poll conducted by Young Invincibles earlier this year.” Image: Flickr / Gage Skidmore
