Hillary Clinton highlighted a technology-innovation hub in Denver on Tuesday as the model for her plan to enable a new generation of entrepreneurs with programs that ease the burdens of student loan debt.
The Democratic presidential candidate visited Galvanize to announce an initiative that allows people who want to start businesses to defer their federal student loans, interest free, for three years at the startup phase. The entrepreneurs who operate in distressed economic areas or launch businesses with social benefits would be eligible for up to $17,500 in loan forgiveness after five years.
“Starting out can be daunting,” Clinton told a crowd of 100 people who work at the co-working space in Denver’s Golden Triangle neighborhood. “There’s a lot, a lot of risk, even if you have a good idea. … It can be a lot harder if you are juggling student loan payments. And that can cut into what you are able to do.”
Clinton visited Colorado as part of a fundraising trip that took her to Los Angeles later in the day. Before the Galvanize event, she raised money in Denver from well-heeled Democrats who donated $27,000 to serve as host.
Later this week, Donald Trump will visit Denver for his own fundraiser and speech at the Western Conservative Summit, his first 2016 campaign appearance in Colorado.
The release of the U.S. House Benghazi Committee report in Washington on the 2012 attacks in Libya overshadowed Clinton’s entrepreneurship announcement.
Responding to a question, the former secretary of state criticized the committee’s work for its “partisan tinge” and declared that it found nothing to contradict earlier investigations about the terrorist attack that killed four Americans.
“I think it’s pretty clear it’s time to move on,” Clinton said to applause.
Colorado GOP Chairman Steve House issued a statement after the event that suggested Clinton’s “attempts to dismiss the final report to the Benghazi terrorist attacks are offensive and outrageous.”
Taking a shot at Trump’s campaign slogan during the event, Clinton said she is in “the future business.”
“Saying that you want to make America ‘great again’ is code for saying, ‘We want to go back to the way it used to be, forget about technology, forget about inclusivity, forget about giving everybody an opportunity to have a real shot at the best possible future,” she said.
The focus on technology is part of Clinton’s jobs plan which, if elected, she promises in the first 100 days of her administration.
In addition to addressing student loans, the candidate wants to provide young entrepreneurs special access to credit and invest more in business incubators. More broadly, Clinton is pledging to connect every household to high-speed internet by 2020, provide every student access to a computer science education before graduating from high school and create more free wireless public hot spots at airport and train stations.
To fund for the initiatives, Clinton is proposing tax hikes to make corporations, Wall Street and the “super rich” pay more.
“The burden of student debt is not only an individual burden that affects your life choices, it’s an economic burden,” Clinton said. “$1.2 trillion in student debt — think of how more productive that money could be spent. So this is going to be one of our priorities.”
The plan does not address private student loans often used for advanced training programs, such as graduate school and computer science.
Her initiative spoke the language of local tech entrepreneurs, many who spend countless hours and personal funds to start a business.
“I wholeheartedly support her decision to defer an entrepreneur’s student loan debt, because I’ve lived it and it’s crippling,” said Lizelle van Vuuren, a serial entrepreneur who also founded the Women Who Startup organization. “We don’t have W-2’s to pay our bills plus our student loan debts, but we sure are creating jobs, and I think that’s a very interesting motivation to want to be an entrepreneur and support entrepreneurs who are creating jobs and value and more.”
Prominent entrepreneur and tech investor Brad Feld tweeted, “At first blush this looks excellent and substantive.”
Area entrepreneurs applauded Clinton’s attention to the tech industry’s woes. She wasn’t vague and put numbers on her goals: Train 50,000 computer-science teachers in the next decade; dedicate $10 billion in federal funding for new educational programs like coding schools and nanodegrees; and grow the technology workforce by reaching out to a more diverse community via a $25 billion fund to support colleges that service minority students.
“Higher education in America is broken and it seems that Hillary knows this …,” said Mike Gellman, founder of website developer Spire Digital. “Overall, I’m just happy to see such a rational and forward-thinking platform for technology and innovation from a politician. … If Hillary can make good on the promises she lays out in this document, I think we’re going to be a very productive country over the next eight years.”
Educating the future tech workforce has been a goal for many in the local tech industry, including Galvanize, which is part co-working space and part entrepreneur support hub, and provides tech-education classes. In its computer software courses, Galvanize adds an entrepreneurial bent to train developers on what startups really need.
Galvanize co-founder Jim Deters said Clinton’s campaign reached out to them for Tuesday’s visit. Announcing the technology initiative was a bonus, he said.
But ironically, schools like Galvanize aren’t eligible to accept federally funded student loans. Galvanize’s intense six-month programs can cost upward of $20,000.
“Just as technology is about iterating and improving, we are hopeful that D.C. will evaluate how and where it invests in tech education so that more students will have more access to educational options like Galvanize,” Deters said.
Jorge Téllez, director of growth & operations at Denver’s Turing School of Software & Design, hopes that Clinton’s support will cut bureaucracy so students at qualified coding schools can use federal student loans. To do so, Turing is pushing for transparency at all schools to share actual graduation statistics and results. Turing has spent two years waiting to get government approval to accept the GI Bill as payment for students who are veterans.
“The process is not straightforward. We need to have reporting standards that would allow students to use their student loans to pay for our programs,” Téllez said.
While Clinton touched on cybersecurity and privacy, some felt her position on privacy is unclear. In her initiative, she “rejects the false choice between privacy interests and keeping Americans safe.”
“Much of what Hillary Clinton is proposing is relatively straightforward and necessary,” said Mark Turnage, president and CEO of OWL Cybersecurity in Denver. “However, one of the major questions to be answered by the next president is the correct balance between the cybersecurity industry’s focus on preserving individual privacy, and the US government’s law enforcement function.”
When the FBI publicly fought Apple for access to the San Bernardino terrorists’ iPhones, the issue was never resolved because the FBI figured out an alternative to forcing a major technology company to hack and share a user’s iPhone data.
“From the industry’s perspective, many of the steps taken by the government in attempting to gain access to private data is directly (opposite) to the industry’s attempt to keep the data secure,” Turnage said. “This has led to considerable ill will between the broader industry and the government, and the next president will need to address this directly and in a meaningful fashion.”
Integrating these goals into reality won’t be easy, said Tom Higley, another long-time Denver entrepreneur currently working with 10 CEOs to create a health startup.
“Many things in the initiative will be challenging. It will be difficult, for example, to do these things simultaneously: ‘Establish rules of the road to support innovation — rules that foster healthy competition, reduce barriers to entry, and effectively protect intellectual property,’ ” he said, quoting from Clinton’s proposal. “But those are the challenges that must be faced if a tech and innovation policy is to be comprehensive.”
Clinton’s visit had many startups excited and hopeful. And ultimately, this will benefit entrepreneurs, said Kate Waller, director of business development for the
Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network, which helps startups get to the next level more efficiently.
“Talent development in the 20th century is of paramount importance. It requires universities, industry and political officials to work together,” Waller said. ” Anything anyone can do to move the dial is a good thing.”
