Currently sitting with 306 electoral votes, well beyond the 270 required to win, it’s become exceedingly clear that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will become the next President and Vice President, respectively, of the United States.
What’s also become apparent is the effect Gen Z had on the election and prospective policy, especially compared to 2016, has grown and will only continue to escalate in the years to come. While that may seem obvious to say, given that more Gen-Zers were of age to vote in 2020, the generation also has priorities that greatly differ from their older counterparts.
So what can Gen-Z expect under a Biden Presidency? Here are three potential impacts with Biden and Harris in the White House.
Greater accessibility to higher education
Now more than ever, having a college education is crucial to finding a job, especially in your desired field. By some estimates, two-thirds of jobs in 2020 will require some form of education beyond high school. And with that figure only going to grow, while tuition seemingly grows with each year too, it is imperative that younger generations be granted better access to higher education.
On his campaign website, Biden recognized that “12 years of education is no longer enough for American workers to remain competitive and earn a middle-class income.”
In response to that reality, Biden’s biggest pledge has been to public colleges and universities completely tuition-free for families that make under $125,000 annually. Biden has also pledged to make Pell Grants more accessible and valuable, by doubling their maximum value.
While that’s certainly a good start, what about student loan debt? For many Gen Zers already graduated, enrolled in college, and those who could enroll before these policies take effect, where will that leave them?
According to NerdWallet, 62% of the 2019 college graduates had some amount of student loan debt, with the average figure in 2018 calculated $47,671. And even that average can be skewed by people who graduated with fairly little debt, or if you went onto school past your bachelor’s degree, like medical or grad school, then that average rises significantly.
To address this student loan crisis, Biden has laid out several plans and policies. Payments on undergraduate federal loans will be slashed in half, while those who “responsibly made payments” for 20 years will have any remaining debt automatically forgiven.
Improving equality efforts
In a recent interview with The Atlantic, former President Barack Obama — to whom Biden was Vice President for eight years — had a telling quote about his view on LGBTQ+ equality, one which Biden has echoed.
“The willingness to accept one’s fate or lot in life because of your skin color or gender or religion or sexual orientation — that you are going to accept being less than someone else — that’s over,” Obama said.
GLAAD, an LBGTQ media outlet, has compiled an extensive list of Trump’s affronts to the community, from his transgender troop ban to rollbacks of workplace protections from the Civil Rights Act. Unsurprisingly, Biden has pledged to reinstitute those protections back into Act, just as he and Obama originally did back in 2014. Additionally, he’s also committed to reversing the transgender troop ban and emphasized the need to pay greater attention to LGBTQ+ students in schools, while also ending LGBTQ+ homelessness.
For a generation that is, statistically, the least heterosexual and most tolerant, progress under a Biden-Harris administration is crucial.
A return to science and addressing climate change
Whether it was backing out of the Paris Climate accord or downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration has not prioritized science or the climate crisis. And considering Gen Z is more fearful of the effects of climate change than any other generation, they are right to expect meaningful action to be taken before it’s too late.
Two of Biden’s promises for his first 100 days in office are to immediately bring the US back into the Paris Climate accord, along with assembling a more robust COVID-19 taskforce.
Biden’s campaign said he supports the Green New Deal framework, which has been spearheaded and championed by congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others. In addition to getting the US on track to function off of entirely clean energy by 2050, Biden has also pledged to fight climate injustice that unfairly “harm communities of color and low-income communities.”
While these are just three areas, Gen Z should expect quick improvement; considering the significant role Gen-Zers played in electing Biden and Harris, they are right to expect both immediate and long-term change to be implemented.
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