College costs among key concerns of Asian American voters

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A study released today finds that the opinions of Asian Americans on issues such as unemployment and health care reflect those of the general public. One issue, however, significantly affects Asian American's views on the economy more than any other ethnic group in the United States: Paying for college.

Regardless of ethnicity, most Americans find paying for college no easy task. But recent findings, published by the National Asian American Survey, show that Asian Americans find the cost of higher education poses a significant burden.

Karthick Ramakrishnan, a political science professor at the University of California-Riverside, co-authored the report.

"The top two out of the top three issues were the cost of college and the cost of making college loan payments, or college debt," he says.

Nationally, nearly one in five Asian Americans reported experiencing economic hardship related to college costs. In California, that statistic was considerably higher.

"In terms of their personal economic situation, we found that the cost of college is a greater burden among Asian Americans in California," noted Ramakrishnan. "38 percent of Asian Americans say that college debt is a significant problem for themselves and their family."

Widespread worries about the economy continue to affect voters' opinions of President Obama. Yet Asian Americans' historical voting patterns may very well be the key to a Democratic victory in November.

"One of the stories that has not been much appreciated is how much the Asian American vote has shifted over the past two decades," Ramakrishnan admits. "So they go from voting about 31 percent for Bill Clinton in 1992 to nearly two-thirds — 62 percent for Obama in 2008."

This kind of dramatic shift in minority voting patterns has been documented only once before. At the beginning of the 20th Century, a large portion of Jewish immigrants supported Republican candidates. But, by the 1940s, Jewish voters leaned primarily Democrat. Despite this trend, no candidate holds particular sway within the Asian community.

43 percent of Asian Americans plan on voting for Obama in the upcoming election, while 24 percent support Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

But the rest of the study's respondents — a whopping 32 percent — remain undecided. It's a race that, for this group of the American public, is still up for grabs.