This Week with Rep. Kip Kendrick

State lawmakers will be back in Jefferson City next week, to do the people’s business.

Representative Kip Kendrick of Columbia will be pushing his Student Debt Relief Bill.

As our guest for “This Week,” Representative Kendrick discusses how his proposed debt relief will work. But he starts our conversation expressing his concern for the way the Senate Republicans ended the recent record filibuster over SJR39/Religious Freedom Act.

This is a transcript of our conversation:

Rep. Kip Kendrick: The procedural move to end the filibuster is very disruptive for the Senate. It’s a, it’s a procedural move that’s only been used 13 times in the history of the Senate.

Joey Parker: It’s called a “PQ.”

Rep. Kendrick: Called the “Previous Question,” that’s correct. So, I have concerns about how the filibuster ended and how the bill moved forward also have concerns about the Senate Joint Resolution 39. Proponents of the bill say that it provides protection to religious clergy and churches not to have to perform same sex marriages. But that’s built into the federal law. What really bothers me most about this bill is it allows businesses in the marketplace to discriminate based on who a person loves and that’s what bothers me the most about this bill.

Joey Parker: Some say, though, that it’s based on their own spirituality on their own religious beliefs and that commerce will work itself out…if people don’t want to do business with those private businesses then they don’t have to any longer.

Rep. Kendrick: Sure. If you’re going to enter into commerce and the public sphere then you have to abide by rules and that you cannot discriminate. I’m Catholic and I’m also a proud LGBT ally and I don’t think that those two should ever be mutually exclusive. Now my time in the Church taught me that providing service to others is essential to my faith. And to discriminate because that person or the couple may not share the same religious views I believe is completely misguided.

Joey Parker: The Democratic Caucus says it will not come back from Easter break with its wounds and bruises healed. Is their going to be a stalemate here for the rest of the session?

Rep. Kendrick: Well, it’s in the House now and the Speaker of the House, the majority party, has a lot to deal with right now regarding this bill. The economic impact of a similar piece of legislation in Indiana has been devastating. I mean it cost their state a lot of money. Major businesses spoke out against the bill in that state they spoke out against the bill here in the state of Missouri, as well. So, it’s an economic issue as well a moral argument.

Joey Parker: House Bill 2432 the Student Debt Relief Act: U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill was in town earlier in the week, and she says the average Missouri student is $26,000 in debt. You’ve come up with about the same numbers. Now a lot of folks are saying that people are trying to wipe debt clean. That’s not what your trying to do at all…is it?

Rep. Kendrick: No. Absolutely not. My bill is very nonpartisan in nature. What my bill does is that it allows for refinancing options at the state level. Student debt has risen rapidly in recent years to the point where the average Missouri borrower has over twenty-six thousand dollars in debt. The average graduate student owes over fifty-seven thousand dollars. Their remains zero options to refinance into lower interest rates. Here in the state of Missouri, it’s not uncommon to see graduate students paying six point eight, seven, eight plus percent it’s not uncommon to see some undergraduates locked into those interest rates, as well. We need to be able to provide an option to refinance, and I built in some protections to this bill not only for the state but also for the students. I felt like if the state is going to take on this risk there’s no reason for us to shift the riskiest pool of borrowers onto the state pool. I don’t think that’s necessary. So, the requirements to refinance are Missouri resident and have an associate’s degree or higher and you make your first repayment on the original loan. And those last two things are very important. Based off of recent data coming from the U.S. Treasury that shows ninety percent of people defaulting don’t have a college degree, have about fifteen hours or less of credit, and then also sixty percent never even made their first payment. So, basically with those two added protections you are skimming off the safest borrowers refinancing them at the state level and your also able to get them in lower interest rates.

Joey Parker: You have a lot of options. There are people who hear these things and they say, “I worked a job through college, then I got a job, then I paid my loans off.” And once again you’re not try to wipe the slate, you’re just trying to figure out other ways to be able to manage a repayment plan.

Rep. Kendrick: That’s exactly right. And it adds a few protections for the student as well it puts them automatically into an income-based repayment plan to make sure that their not paying unsustainable amount of their monthly income towards their student debt. It’s not uncommon anymore to see students paying thirty, forty, fifty percent of their monthly income towards their debt repayment. Mine would cap that at a reasonable rate it would also extend the repayment period. The standard 10 year federal repayment period requires that students are repaying their loans when their earning potential is the lowest and their job security is the least.

Joey Parker: Representative Kendrick, thank you very much for joining us. We will be watching the bill.

Rep. Kendrick: Thank you so much. I appreciate this opportunity.