By Sheena
Holland
 |
| Photo provided by the office of Rep. Sweeney |
Going to
college can be a daunting experience – between the tuition, tests and pressures
to succeed, many students step away, or worse, think they cannot attend at all.
But State
Representative Bride Rose Sweeney, 27, a graduate of John Carroll University
several years ago, knows the plight of a typical college student, and is
pushing for changes to make their lives at least a little bit easier.
Rep.
Sweeney (D-Cleveland) along with Rep. Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg) recently
introduced a bipartisan bill to eliminate sales taxes on college textbooks.
Rep.
Sweeney said that she was excited about the recent successful elimination of
the pink tax (the tax on feminine hygiene products) and it made herself and
other legislators continue considering what other demographics could benefit
from certain tax breaks.
“This
came, which I think is really cool, with another state legislator Naraj Antani.
We're two of the youngest people in the general assembly and he is very, very
far right,” Rep. Sweeney said. “And it's cool that, being some of the youngest
people that are recent graduates from college, [we’re] coming together and
saying, ‘okay, what can we do?’ We did just get more money in the budget to
hopefully lower costs of tuition, but there's other things we can do.”
She said
that she feels the responsibility to speak on behalf of college students and
address the student debt crisis rests on the younger members of the general
assembly, so introducing the bill to eliminate taxes on textbooks is both a
good way to raise awareness and put some money back in the pockets of students.
Reps.
Sweeney and Antani have looked over what the raw numbers would look like if the
bill goes through, and Sweeney said that she thinks the benefit for students
outweighs the relatively minimal hit the state budget would take from cutting
that tax.
“We have a
$70 billion budget, so this is a few million dollars. So, I think we just keep
educating and putting it in those contexts,” Rep. Sweeney said. “You know,
unfortunately the average age of the general assembly is – this is just me
ballparking, around 50 years old. And so, the people that are in there [are
those] who've been making these decisions on higher education. I’ve talked to
people and it's just not a priority for them – and I ask about the student loan
crisis, and I've had actual members of the general assembly say it's not a
crisis. Like it's not a real thing.”
Rep.
Sweeney said that she knows how challenging it can be for anyone to join the
workforce without a degree, since many entry level jobs require one, so she
commends students who brave the hurdles that college poses to reach their
goals. She said she wants to contribute any way she can to lessen those
barriers, even if it is just helping students save some money whenever they buy
a textbook.
“It's a
very small break, but you know, when you look at it, it's millions of dollars
that the state … taxes on these books, when I think it could be better used in
the hands of students.”
