Elizabeth Warren Visits Medford, Says Education 'Not a Priority' for Scott Brown and Republicans

Elizabeth Warren made a campaign stop in Medford Wednesday, where she chatted with college students about loans and took a jab at Scott Brown within a stone's throw of his alma mater.

Warren made the rounds at the Danish Pastry House on Boston Avenue Monday afternoon, across the street from Tufts University where Scott Brown received his bachelors degree in 1981.

Sitting with a group of college students, she called out Brown for voting against a Democrat-sponsored bill in the Senate Tuesday that would freeze Stafford student loan interest rates.

“I see this question about Scott Brown voting with all the Republicans to double the interest rate on student loans as just a piece of a larger picture in which support for education is not a priority," Warren said over an iced coffee, "and instead, what substitutes for that is a world in which he votes to protect oil subsidies, hedge fund breaks and special agreements for multi-national corporations.”

Stafford student loan rates are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent without action in Congress. Brown has said he supports extending the loan rate one year, but doesn't support the method Democrats want to use to pay the difference, which is social security and medicare funds.

Tobias Wilson, a Junior at Tufts, told Warren Wednesday that he was working two jobs to pay for his undergraduate education and had an internship, but that the work takes a toll on his studies.

"I have a job, I have an internship, I have a work study job as well...Tufts tuition is $57,000 a year, that's four times what my mother makes in a year," Wilson said.

Speaking to Wilson and about six other students, Warren said the government invested heavily in education, research and infrastructure following the great depression, but that changed about 30 years ago.

"Starting about 30 years ago, before you all were born, this country started getting pushed in a different direction," Warren said. "It increasingly became a country where Republicans said ‘I’ve got mine and the rest of you are on your own.’”