The Rainbow PUSH Coalition applauds President Obama's sentiment that Americans should not have to go broke to get a college education. The idea of cutting out the banks who have served as middlemen between students and the federal government is a good one.
For several years the Rainbow PUSH Coalition has advocated reducing the rate charged to students on college loans. Banks borrow funds from the government at favorable rates, then earn windfall profits by lending those same funds to students at exorbitant rates. Stopping that practice is the right thing to do.
The Administration essentially wants to cut private lenders out of the game and run the system itself. Democrats claim the move will save $68 billion over 10 years, which can be used for a laundry list of education priorities, including increasing the maximum amount of Pell Grants, expanding Perkins Loans and investing in community colleges and other programs.
Students need more than good intentions. They need a guarantee that the savings realized by cutting out the banks and Sallie Mae go mostly to them. There are lots of hands out for the income that direct student lending will generate. Some of it will go to subsidize universal access to health care. But most of it should go to students themselves.
For decades, economists and others have been warning that America does too little to develop its human potential. We agree. Now is the time to invest like there's no tomorrow in the next generation of scientists, thinkers, advocates and inventors.
Americans are trapped in $700 billion dollars worth of student loan debt. There should be a path out of debt through our danger zones for those who need it. The path could start with service in the nation's military; wind through ghetto and barrio schools; stop by urban food deserts to deliver nourishment and medical care to the rural sick.
A plan to earn debt forgiveness retroactively must be instituted at once as an acknowledgment that an entire generation is mired in tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. Not every one of them will be able to write a blockbuster memoir to pay off student loans. By way of comparison, in Great Britain, student loans don't come due until the former student earns 30,000 pounds.
This is the Second Great Depression. Students should not have to worry about loan repayment while they are unemployed and looking for work. Nor should compound interest mount during periods of unemployment.
President Obama and the Congress have made a good start. But more needs to be done:
Don't use the direct student loan program only as a way of balancing the budget on the backs of students. Guarantee them a square deal. Our students and education should be national investment, not a commodity.
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losing money. Now maybe its time to say adios to such things and go back to educating and not entertaining. The NFL and the NBA can go back to farm teams like they had in the early 60's until
it changed.Now football coaches make more money than just about all the teachers put together.The
tuition keeps going up because these programs are LOSING MONEY.
Most loan companies have some kind of unemployment deferment, but it is limited in time rather than on the basis of employment. In this economy the old standards for job searches do not apply. There are people who have been looking for work for years now, without luck. The deferment should be extended for as long as the borrower remains unemployed, rather than having an arbitrary end date. Also, considering that some jobs require a credit check, a borrower who has defaulted through no fault of his or her own may be further denied work because of this problem, continuing the vicious circle. As it is now the loan companies (Sallie Mae) set their own rules and can virtually force unemployed borrowers into default. This doesn't do anybody any good and since the loan companies can't seem to see reason, Congress should do it for them.
The government control of student debt will become the government control of student minds.
There's a group on Facebook and a team of students putting a bill together. The proposal is that this type of program wouldn't fully mature until 15 years after its signing, but when it does mature and at the benchmarks along the way it will make college hugely more accessible and fairer incentives for students in the US. The program will also have significant implications for the sustainability of our values and policies both foreign and domestic as a nation.
Search 500,000 Students for Peace on Facebook or check out my blog (The Parallel World) for me information!
Peace,
Branson
The idea is that if we wanted to run the program tomorrow we'd be debating it in congress for the next fifteen years anyways. But if we create a really good package that doesn't have many immediate costs then it can be passed today and scaled up over time. One thing is assured, the other is a crapshoot.
3 Simple Steps to help you pay for College Education: 1) Use Free Money First. Students should fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to access need-based grants and apply for scholarships. 2) Explore Federal Loans. Federal loans offer low, fixed interest rates and flexible repayment options. 3) Fill Any Gap With Private Loans. Private student loans may be available to cover the rest of their education costs. For more information on getting a private student loan, follow this link: http://www.onlinedegreenavigator.org/Private-Student-Loans/
And yeah, I know that supposedly they're "separate budgets", blah, blah, blah. I also realize that what I said was basically blasphemy or sacrilegious on the average college/university campus since the typical campus revolves around one or more of those sports...
This is not an argument for spreading the wealth (the typical Socialist argument). This is an argument about the fair application of the bankruptcy laws - a valid legal recourse for those who are seriously hurting. We are talking about people who had very good intentions, but because of the economy or other circumstances out of their control, they have to choose between paying their student loan and feeding themselves. Either you believe in bankruptcy for ALL, or NONE at all. The Congress should not get to select one group of consumers and tell them that they cannot use aleve their suffering, while the rest of the consumers may do as they please.
By the way - when bankruptcy was an option for students a few years back, less than 1% of all student loans were included in bankruptcy filings.
We are talking about students. The whole reason they are in school is to increase their value in the working world. The degree is an investment in their future, and frankly in the future of this country.
By the way, if it weren't for bankruptcy, there would not be such products as Heinz ketchup, Hershey's chocolate, Ford automobiles, and Disney - companies that to this day employ hundreds of thousands of people. Bankruptcy is a good system for entrepreneurs and risk-takers who are investing in their future....like students.
I wrote him a letter a few months ago in which I discussed how many students are seriously suffering right now, and how students are the only consumers who are discriminated against by the Bankruptcy Code. His response was to send me a letter talking about all of the wonderful things he wants to do in the future to change how students borrow money (I did not write about this in my letter). Not once did he address my main concern - bankruptcy protection for students.
I was very disappointed with the President's response. More recently, I received a letter from Senator Feinstein. She eloquently and concisely addressed my problem and promised to look into it. Whether she is serious or not, at least she got the message and treated it as the serious problem that it is.
What a disappointment this president has been for students so far (ironically, one of the very groups who rallied hard to bring him to office).
No truer words have ever been spoken. The statement can extend to our jails, ghettos, and rural areas, where enormous human talent is wasting away.
We need to stop asking "WHO'S GOING TO PAY FOR IT???"....and instead demand from ALL levels of goverment: "HOW ARE YOU SPENDING MY TAX DOLLARS/"
Why don't WE as a people demand that our trillions of tax dollars pay in part for developing our national human potential? We pay through the nose for such things as unnecessary wars, unearned bonuses to investment bankers, health care for Iraqi & Afghan citizens, enormous salaries to mercenaries like Blackwater and Halliburton....but God forbid someone should suggest investing our hard earned tax dollars in developing American potential or securing their health needs because ...... that's "SOCIALISM"!!!! The other things are HIGHWAY ROBBERY, folks!
No people on earth have been so thoroughly duped and played like the American public!
However, he neglects one major point. It has been the cheap loan rates and easy availability that has pushed college tuition through the roof and has enslaved so many students and parents to massive student loans.
We are in the middle of a "education bubble" for college tuition that is sure to pop once interest rates rise and credit is restricted. This should, in turn, make college more affordable for all.
College students are practically the only category of people who have no recourse to bankruptcy. If a businessperson makes a bad decision - they can declare bankruptcy (and boy do they - in droves). Homeowners, folks who've thrown tens of thousands of dollars onto credit cards, investors, churches, non-profits, etc ... have all used bankruptcy provisions to evade private debt and even to reduce whatever limited debt they might have to the taxman. College students, the youngest and least experienced debt holders in the nation, have no access to bankruptcy protection.
Bankruptcy availability for all ... or bankruptcy availability for none!