Of all the issues facing students at Cerritos College, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and healthcare, the economy is the most prominent.

Facing a jobless rate of 6.1 percent, many students should be concerned.

Many students are working-class people, and they need jobs to pay for their way through school.

Without money, many people won’t go to school.

Even if students don’t see that economy as the biggest issue, the community college enrollment this fall is telling a different story.

When the economy is poor, community colleges see an increase in enrollment, demonstrating that the economy is a major issue for people.

According to the Los Angeles Times, it is estimated that community colleges are seeing a 6 percent to 15 percent increase in enrollment this fall.

This is mainly because students are opting to save money by going to school closer to home and spending less money on classes.

Our presidents may have little power over how well the economy does, since the economy moves in cycles.

So who becomes our nation’s next president is of great importance to us.

Despite how people may feel about the presidential candidates, about who has more experience or who can better bring change to our country, one thing should remain in the minds of students: the economy.

Larry M. Bartels, an economic and public policy professor at Princeton, has used census data from the period from 1948 to 2007 to argue that over the 34 years since that Republicans held the presidency, the average annual growth of the gross national product was 1.64 percent, whereas the annual growth during the 26 years of Democratic control was 2.78 percent.

Presidents have more power early in their administrations to have an impact on the economy.

The Democrats tend to use that power to promote the interests of the poor, through raising the minimum wage and favoring unions.

On the other hand, the Republicans tend to favor policies that favor the rich, such as limiting social spending and giving tax refunds for the upper strata of American society under the assumption that the wealth will “trickle down” to the poor.

The problem here isn’t that students aren’t Democratic, since they overwhelmingly support Barack Obama.

The problem is that students don’t vote in large numbers.

We talked to students last week about what they thought was the biggest issue in the election and were amazed to see how many didn’t know what was going on.

Some people simply didn’t care about the election or the issues. One man said he “didn’t do politics,” and walked away.

This is a historic election. If students are too apathetic to vote this time around, they must be brain dead.

Students need to get excited and get involved.

That doesn’t mean that students have to go to rallies and conventions but just reading the news and learning about the candidates and the issues.