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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: Student Loan Debt Accelerating LI Brain Drain

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Friday, May 16, 2014   

NEW YORK – A new report says heavy student loan debt is a major factor forcing young college graduates to plan on leaving Long Island – and it is accelerating local brain drain.

The white paper from the Suburban Millennial Institute is headlined Congratulations, Graduates – Your Bill is in the Mail and Will be Coming for the Next Four Decades.

The institute's founder, SUNY professor Jeffrey Guillot, says the report finds the downtrend in millennials' home ownership is directly linked to skyrocketing student loan debt.

"Because they are being priced out of the marketplace,” he explains. “And so, if we can find ways to allow flexibility on what is now the second largest form of debt in America, then we're going to be moving in the right direction."

Guillot says an alarming 30 percent of local millennials – that's people from ages 20 to 34 – say their future plans involve leaving Long Island.

Census data shows Long Island already has lost 15 percent of these valuable young professionals over the last decade.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer outlined a Democratic plan this week at Hofstra University that would allow young professionals with heavy loan debt to refinance at rates below 4 percent.

Guillot says plenty of recent college graduates need that relief.

"If you are burdened with an insurmountable amount of federal or private student loan debt,” he stresses, “your ability to be socioeconomically mobile and purchase a home in many Long Island communities becomes impossible."

Last year, President Barack Obama said student loan debt is holding back the entire middle class and Guillot says the president’s support will be valuable in efforts to pass the Democratic plan in Congress.

"And President Obama has been supportive of issues like this before,” Guillot stresses. “The real fight, of course, is in the House of Representatives, where there are many folks who contend that rather than provide student loan debt relief, you know, folks should just work harder."

Guillot says some Republicans are lining up behind the measure and he believes there is no reason more can't get behind the plan because he says it is revenue neutral.





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