Seaside >> The Panetta Institute for Public Policy recently conducted a survey on college students in the United States and studies say that talk about this year’s midterm elections is unusually high on campus.
The Hart Research conducted online interviews with 801 students enrolled at four-year colleges and universities across the country from April 12 to 19 for this year’s study.
The Panetta Institute issued a press release on Friday and the buzz around the survey was that 48 percent of students are now likely to follow the midterm elections a lot more closely than in years past. The poll also reported that 61 percent said they’re at least paying attention, compared to 38 percent in 2014.
The poll also reported that the stress of too much student loan debt has reached a record level at 65 percent.
“I think the interesting part of this survey indicates that students are really in a great deal of distress,” said former Defense Secretary and Panetta Institute chairman Leon Panetta. “There’s a crisis going on for young people and for students that I think is producing this greater interest in the midterm elections.”
Panetta said the number of students paying attention to what’s going on in the midterm elections has doubled since the last midterm elections in 2014.
Panetta said the poll doesn’t just report negative reactions to President Donald Trump but they’re not satisfied with the political leadership in the United States.
Trump’s job approval rating among the students was reported at 29 percent, with 71 percent disapproving of his performance. And 52 percent say their vote in this year’s congressional elections will be intended as a signal of opposition to Trump.
A large number of students, 61 percent to be exact, claimed that the country is “off on the wrong track,” which is the same result as last year in April when the number hit its highest level in the survey’s 20-year history.
Although a large portion of college students are far more Democratic, just 51 percent approve of the job that Democrats are doing in Congress, while 49 percent disapproved.
The Panetta Institute puts out a survey in the spring of each year to encourage younger generations to consider careers in public service and help prepare them for the road ahead. The study also explores student attitudes and opinions on other topics including social trends, preferred news sources, level of civic engagement, personal career expectations and a variety of national and international issues.
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The “MeToo Movement” was brought up in the survey as 62 percent of all students reported they’re very or fairly closely following the movement and 68 percent said the movement is an appropriate response to incidents of sexual harassment. And 71 percent believe it will lead to long-term change on the issue.
The results of quality of life on campus reported that female students are two times as likely as male students to say they’ve experienced gender discrimination (60 percent to 30 percent) and 63 percent of women believe the opinions of men are treated more seriously than those of women, while just 41 percent of male students agreed.
The students brought up other issues like gun violence with 43 percent worrying “a great deal” or “quite a bit” about the possibility of a mass shooting occurring on their campus.
The students also expressed record levels of concern of the direction of the United States and anxiety about their personal finances, especially college expenses.
“It’s a story that the American people aren’t paying enough attention to because our democracy is dependent on giving our young people in this country a good education,” Panetta said. “But the reality is that getting a good education now is very costly and it’s producing a great deal of financial distress. The cost of education has increased dramatically.”
The Panetta Institute reported that 37 percent of college students skipped meals and 23 percent didn’t eat for at least a day because they couldn’t afford to buy food. And 36 percent avoided necessary medical or dental procedures because they couldn’t afford it.
The poll reports that 34 percent of students work at least 20 hours a week to cover college expenses, while 20 percent have needed to take time off from school because they couldn’t keep up financially.
The amount of students worrying about their debt went up nine percentage points since last year’s survey and 72 percent of students said they worry often about finding a good-paying job upon graduation, which were both record highs for the poll.
Like in previous years, the students were asked if they’d be interested in a program that provides grant or financial assistance to help pay for college tuition in exchange for two years of national service such as teaching, serving in the military or another form of national service after graduating.
Interestingly enough, 58 percent of students said they’d be very or fairly interested in a program, which was nearly the same amount in the previous two years.
“I think we’ve got to start thinking about creative ways to deal with this problem because if we want our young people to be able to enjoy the American dream, they’re going to have to get a decent education,” Panetta said.
But when the students were asked about teaching in a public school without financial incentive, just 30 percent of students say they’d be very or fairly interested. That number has decreased from the 45 percent who expressed interest 12 years ago and a possible indication that it also has to do with students’ financial woes.
“America in the 21st century, we’re talking about all this stuff about a great economy and here we’ve got a large number of students in this country who are suffering from financial distress. That’s unacceptable,” Panetta said.
Juan Reyes can be reached at (831) 726-4360
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