{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/vermont/vermonters-on-the-economy-there-is-not-a-level-playing-field-for-opportunity", "Vermonters on the Economy: 'There Is Not A Level Playing Field.'", "2014-12-17", "2014", "2014-12", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Vermonters on the Economy: 'There Is Not A Level Playing Field.'\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tWednesday, December 17, 2014\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\r\nVermont\u2019s jobless rate is one of the lowest in the United States. But thousands of Vermonters continue to struggle to find good-paying jobs.\u00a0\r\nMany Vermonters who do have jobs don\u2019t feel they are earning enough money to give their families the lives they were hoping for. Many of Vermont\u2019s college graduates feel they can\u2019t pursue their \u201cdream jobs\u201d because they have tens of thousands of student loans that must be repaid.\u00a0 Meanwhile, other Vermonters shared that they have serious doubts about whether there is a \u201clevel playing field for opportunity.\u201d\r\n\u201cI find the economy is very hard to live in today,\u201d said Rachael Trill, 29, of Colchester, Vermont.\u00a0 \u201cI live in a two-parent household. We have a young daughter and we both work -- and we still can\u2019t manage to get by financially.\u201d\r\nTrill said she would like to go back to school, but doesn\u2019t want to take out thousands of dollars in loans to do it. \u201cI can\u2019t work, and go to school, and take care of her -- and afford to do all that at once,\u201d she said, describing the challenges of affording day care, covering household expenses and finding money to pay for tuition.\r\nThomas Smith, 56, of Burlington, Vermont is concerned many people in Vermont and throughout the United States won\u2019t have enough money saved for retirement, a situation that will cause major difficulties in the decades ahead. Overall, he said, \u201cI think one of my main concerns, in terms of economic policy in this country, is that there is not a level playing field for opportunity.\u201d\r\n\u2018PEOPLE CAN\u2019T LIVE THEIR DREAM\u2019\r\nMarc Brunco, 23, senior at Lyndon State College, said student debt weighs on his personal finances and his future plans.\u00a0 He is not sure exactly how much debt he has \u2013 but estimates it is \u201caround the $40,000 to $45,000 mark.\u201d\r\n\u201cI just try not to think about it,\u201d he said.\r\nSeven in 10 seniors who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in last year had student loan debt, with an average of $28,400 per borrower, according to The Project on Student Debt. In Vermont, the average debt was $27,318.\r\nBrunco says student loan debt may prevent him, and other Vermont college graduates, from picking a job that truly interests them. Instead, he said, many will gravitate towards jobs that help keep the creditors at bay.\u00a0 Graduating seniors, he said, often must \u201cpick a job that can pay the debt rather than pick a job that they want to do. So people can\u2019t live their dream \u2026 because it doesn\u2019t pay well.\u201d\r\n\u201cMore and more often, I\u2019m hearing my friends graduating in all this sort of debt and I hear even more friends, sadly, saying \u2018I\u2019m going to withdraw because it\u2019s too expensive,\u2019\u201d he said.\r\nBrunco has a message for students in Vermont and throughout the United States: \u201cI would just say you have power. Not just through voting, but you have the power to go down there: to Montpelier to Washington. ... You have the power to say to the government, do something about this because you\u2019re supposed to serve our interests. And this is the interest that\u2019s near and dear to our hearts.\u201d\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n12/08/2014", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/vermont/vermonters-on-the-economy-there-is-not-a-level-playing-field-for-opportunity"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7811021059751511, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}