Hitting the campaign trail in Iowa on Wednesday for the first time as a presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis road tested new policy ideas for handling student debt and boosting military morale.
In Salix, Iowa, DeSantis said universities should have to pick up the tab if a former student can’t pay back their loans. Later, in Council Bluffs, DeSantis said that he, if elected, would offer back pay to veterans who reenlist after leaving the military due to Covid-19 vaccine requirements.
For DeSantis, who provided few details on his first-term agenda in his official launch on Twitter last week and in Tuesday’s campaign kickoff event in Des Moines, Wednesday’s events offered an early glimpse into the ideas he will bring to the race as he seeks to convince Republicans he is best positioned to take on President Joe Biden in 2024. Both suggestions are near to issues DeSantis has championed as governor – overhauling higher education to remove perceived liberal influences and pushing back against coronavirus mitigation measures widely credited with ending the pandemic.
A DeSantis campaign spokesperson told CNN more specifics on all of DeSantis’ policy proposals will come as the campaign progresses.
DeSantis’ pitch to remedy the country’s mounting student loan debt – amassing $1.6 trillion nationwide as of last year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York – he said will force universities to change their approach to preparing students for the workforce. The proposal comes as House Republicans negotiated for student loan payments to restart by the end of August as part of the debt ceiling deal with Biden – a pact DeSantis has criticized.
“If somebody defaults, the university should pick it up,” he said. “If they were on the hook for it, they would make sure the curriculum was designed to produce people that can be…
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