Ok all you economics/political majors...

[ThomasDenton 79]

...what's your opinion on this bill about student loan forgiveness?

 

http://hansenclarke.house.gov/sites/hansenclarke.house.gov/files/documents/1-pager%20SLFA.pdf

 

The above link is just a brief overview of the proposed bill. Here's a link to the full thing:

 

http://www.forgivestudentloandebt.com/content/student-loan-forgiveness-act-2012-hr-4170-bill-text

[ThomasDenton 79]

Of course I like the idea of limiting what I have to pay, only having to pay for 5 years (assuming I find a teaching job), and getting all this other help that it mentions, but I don't know enough about how the economy works to know if this is really a good thing or not.

[Deleted Account 5,203]

Holy mother of all that's good, that would be a lifesaver for me.

 

In principle, I'm opposed to it, because that's BILLIONS flushed down the toilet from the government's perspective in existing loans alone. But I would be stupid not to support it. One of those "dare not bite the hand feeding you" deals.

[ThomasDenton 79]

Holy mother of all that's good, that would be a lifesaver for me.

 

In principle, I'm opposed to it, because that's BILLIONS flushed down the toilet from the government's perspective in existing loans alone. But I would be stupid not to support it. One of those "dare not bite the hand feeding you" deals.

 

That was pretty much my reaction to it when I first read it, lol.

[sportsfan 21]

I could easily support it. I just think about the trillion we gave out to bail out the banks. How about our wasted monies to companies that have gone belly up lately too. Investing in our people makes alot more sense in the long run. Those students eventually earn more which translates to more tax revenue. I say it's a good investment in people who deserve a "hand-up" instead of a the "hand-out" that is likely to pay off in the long run.

[redtiger 1,742]

To me it makes sense and is a good investment(not just because it would help me out).

 

Who is buying homes, cars, etc? professionals between the ages of 22 -35. If they dont have their student loans to pay back they will still spend that money.

 

And did I read it right, the money will come from savings from the military reductions in Iraq and Afganistan?

 

My inner hippie just jumped for joy! support education not war!

Edited June 13, 2012 by redtiger

[ThomasDenton 79]

Is there anyone on here that isn't currently suffering from student loans that would care to weigh in?

[bugsbunny 12]

Is there anyone on here that isn't currently suffering from student loans that would care to weigh in?

 

Sure. I will weigh in. I had student loans. I paid them all off. When you sign up for a loan, you are agreeing to pay it back. So pay it back like you agreed to in the first place.

[redtiger 1,742]

I dont think this about anyone crying "my loans are unfair, I shouldnt have to pay them"(we all knew what we were getting into), its more about, where are the people with money gonna spend it. Paying your loans is all well and good and should be done, no doubt about that. The "plan" is instead of a young professional paying back 40k(some more, some less) in loans they will buy a car and make a downpayment on a house(2 industries that are suffering most in this country).

 

If were gonna complain, I can make a strong arguement that the high cost of an education is gonna bring about further economic collapse in this country if something doesent change.

[Deleted Account 5,203]

I dont think this about anyone crying "my loans are unfair, I shouldnt have to pay them"(we all knew what we were getting into), its more about, where are the people with money gonna spend it. Paying your loans is all well and good and should be done, no doubt about that. The "plan" is instead of a young professional paying back 40k(some more, some less) in loans they will buy a car and make a downpayment on a house(2 industries that are suffering most in this country).

 

If were gonna complain, I can make a strong arguement that the high cost of an education is gonna bring about further economic collapse in this country if something doesent change.

 

That's exactly the rationale and counter-argument, respectively.

 

So many variables to the problem. Too many kids going to college, which in turn saturates the pool, which in turn means there's more people applying for jobs, which in turn allows employers to set higher standards than they were able to just 20 years ago. And, knowing this, colleges don't feel so bad about rate hikes as they once did. That, and chasing the USNWR pot of gold, which places a ridiculous emphasis on fundraising, doesn't help the education bubble.

[swvacsas2 15]

The problem of escalating student debt has been caused by government and it is only proper that government should help solve it. I do agree under general circumstances individuals should pay the debts they owe. In the case of student debt we have a situation where a lack of oversight has caused a massive surge in college expenses.

[swvacsas2 15]

A good George Will column on higher ed, expenses etc.

 

Subprime college educations

 

By George F. Will, Published: June 8 The Washington Post

 

Many parents and the children they send to college are paying rapidly rising prices for something of declining quality. This is because “quality†is not synonymous with “value.â€

 

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, believes that college has become, for many, merely a “status marker,†signaling membership in the educated caste, and a place to meet spouses of similar status — “associative mating.†Since 1961, the time students spend reading, writing and otherwise studying has fallen from 24 hours a week to about 15 — enough for a degree often desired only as an expensive signifier of rudimentary qualities (e.g., the ability to follow instructions). Employers value this signifier as an alternative to aptitude tests when evaluating potential employees because such tests can provoke lawsuits by having a “disparate impact†on this or that racial or ethnic group.

 

In his “The Higher Education Bubble,†Reynolds writes that this bubble exists for the same reasons the housing bubble did. The government decided that too few people owned homes/went to college, so government money was poured into subsidized and sometimes subprime mortgages/student loans, with the predictable result that housing prices/college tuitions soared and many borrowers went bust. Tuitions and fees have risen more than 440 percent in 30 years as schools happily raised prices — and lowered standards — to siphon up federal money. A recent Wall Street Journal headline: “Student Debt Rises by 8% as College Tuitions Climb.â€

 

Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist, writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education that as many people — perhaps more — have student loan debts as have college degrees. Have you seen those T-shirts that proclaim “College: The Best Seven Years of My Life� Twenty-nine percent of borrowers never graduate, and many who do graduate take decades to repay their loans.

 

In 2010, the New York Times reported on Cortney Munna, then 26, a New York University graduate with almost $100,000 in debt. If her repayments were not then being deferred because she was enrolled in night school, she would have been paying $700 monthly from her $2,300 monthly after-tax income as a photographer’s assistant. She says she is toiling “to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back.†Her degree is in religious and women’s studies.

 

The budgets of California’s universities are being cut, so recently Cal State Northridge students conducted an almost-hunger strike (sustained by a blend of kale, apple and celery juices) to protest, as usual, tuition increases and, unusually and properly, administrators’ salaries. For example, in 2009 the base salary of UC Berkeley’s vice chancellor for equity and inclusion was $194,000, almost four times that of starting assistant professors. And by 2006, academic administrators outnumbered faculty.

 

The Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald notes that sinecures in academia’s diversity industry are expanding as academic offerings contract. UC San Diego (UCSD), while eliminating master’s programs in electrical and computer engineering and comparative literature, and eliminating courses in French, German, Spanish and English literature, added a diversity requirement for graduation to cultivate “a student’s understanding of her or his identity.†So, rather than study computer science and Cervantes, students can study their identities — themselves. Says Mac Donald, “ ‘Diversity,’ it turns out, is simply a code word for narcissism.â€

 

She reports that UCSD lost three cancer researchers to Rice University, which offered them 40 percent pay increases. But UCSD found money to create a vice chancellorship for equity, diversity and inclusion. UC Davis has a Diversity Trainers Institute under an administrator of diversity education, who presumably coordinates with the Cross-Cultural Center. It also has: a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center; a Sexual Harassment Education Program; a diversity program coordinator; an early resolution discrimination coordinator; a Diversity Education Series that awards Understanding Diversity Certificates in “Unpacking Oppressionâ€; and Cross-Cultural Competency Certificates in “Understanding Diversity and Social Justice.†California’s budget crisis has not prevented UC San Francisco from creating a new vice chancellor for diversity and outreach to supplement its Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity and Diversity, and the Diversity Learning Center (which teaches how to become “a Diversity Change Agentâ€), and the Center for LGBT Health and Equity, and the Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention & Resolution, and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committees on Diversity, and on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues, and on the Status of Women.

 

So taxpayers should pay more and parents and students should borrow more to fund administrative sprawl in the service of stale political agendas? Perhaps they will, until “pop!†goes the bubble.

 

georgewill@washpost.com

[ThomasDenton 79]

Sure. I will weigh in. I had student loans. I paid them all off. When you sign up for a loan, you are agreeing to pay it back. So pay it back like you agreed to in the first place.

 

So you're saying that if you were still in debt with your student loans, you wouldn't support this? I agree that people should be responsible and that they should definitely know what they are getting themselves into, but I think this bill does more than just provide a way out of paying off debts. For one thing, it will possibly increase the number of people going into the public service fields, since they'd get the biggest break.

 

For my own situation, I'm going to be an art teacher. I know that art teachers get a ridiculously small budget with all the supplies they have to buy and end up paying loads of money out of pocket. This bill would help to greatly reduce my student debt, therefore allowing me to spend more money on supplies for my classroom, and being able to provide a better education. Of course, I would feel a bit guilty about not paying back all that I borrowed (I'm one of those kind of people) but this could end up benefiting more than just myself (like my students).

 

I think college students need a break. More and more people (businesses, gov't, etc.) are pushing people to go to college, but it's getting harder and harder since tuition keeps going up and help is getting slimmer.

[redtiger 1,742]

Heres an example of how things have changed; in class we got into the discussion of the hardships faced by new college gradates(including student loans) the professor told us about how he paid for his education.

 

He attended UK in the 60s, to foot the bill for his colllege expenses he worked the summers in the Tobacco fields. During the summer he made enough money to pay all of his tuition, books, fees, room and board, as well as having a little spending money left over.

 

Is that possible now? no. For example I could work in a mine or w/ a drilling company for the summer and make that kind of money but they wouldnt hire me knowing that I was just going to work the summer. In addition an education is more and more necessary to get a descent paying job(not essential but it helps)

[Deleted Account 5,203]

Heres an example of how things have changed; in class we got into the discussion of the hardships faced by new college gradates(including student loans) the professor told us about how he paid for his education.

 

He attended UK in the 60s, to foot the bill for his colllege expenses he worked the summers in the Tobacco fields. During the summer he made enough money to pay all of his tuition, books, fees, room and board, as well as having a little spending money left over.

 

Is that possible now? no. For example I could work in a mine or w/ a drilling company for the summer and make that kind of money but they wouldnt hire me knowing that I was just going to work the summer. In addition an education is more and more necessary to get a descent paying job(not essential but it helps)

 

Yea verily. Disproportionate increases are dismantling college students disproportinately.