We support reforms to the financial marketplace to curb bad practices by banks and lenders.
The cost of a college education has increased by 500% in the last 25 years. This means that most students can no longer work their way through college. Instead, they must borrow heavily to get a degree so necessary in today’s brutal job market. That’s why we need to make sure Congress doesn’t let student loan interest rates double on July 1!
Votes in the Senate to keep rates low have failed. Now, lawmakers have only a few short weeks to get beyond the bickering and vote for a bill to prevent popular “Stafford” loan interest rates from doubling to 6.8 percent.
Lawmakers care what their voters think. Put a human face on the cost of a college education now and send a strong message to your elected officials. Submit your photo holding a sign with how much you owe, and/or your personal message.
You can email your picture directly from your phone to photo@consumersunion.org
By submitting my photo to photo@consumersunion.org, I authorize Consumer Union to post my photo online. I verify that the image is of me, shot with my knowledge and permission. I understand that I am to receive no compensation for the use of this image. I give Consumers Union the right to use my image for the purposes of education, promotion or advertising the advocacy work of Consumers Union.
I am old and I am different. I put myself through Premed and medical school with the help of 36 mo of the GI Bill – sort of a loan for which I had already paid. In return I have helped a bunch of people and paid a lot of taxes. It was a good deal: Win – Win. JWC
Well said Jon!
Al Yelvington
LCDR USCG ret
That was my first attempt at paying for college. After two years and a major change, the army decided they didn’t want me as a cadet anymore and needed to pay them back.
Since when is it the Fed. Gov’t's responsibility to pay for a College Education? I worked my way through College on a ‘pay as you go’ plan … when I had the $$$, I took more courses.
Our government is too involved in our lives and it is teaching our citizens that they don’t require ‘dreams’ for a better future BECAUSE the ‘government’ will take care of ‘it’. This is the wrong direction for the US Government and the wrong direction for our country. We did not get where we are today buy ‘expecting’ government to provide for our needs. We will become a 3rd rate country if we continue to walk that path.
NO PICTURE as I paid my way and I do not have any debt.
You are so so so wrong. We don’t have dreams anymore because of austerity! …it has absolutely nothing to do with people being lazy. Rent cost too much, food cost too much, clothes cost too much and College definitely cost too much.
Get off your highhorse, good for you that you paid for your college. Nobody here is asking for their education to be paid for! They’re asking for the cost of college to be put in check, not paid for in full. Why don’t you read before you get on your soapbox???
Ignorance will hold this country back from any progress, ignorance alone.
Hey Angeleno, you don’t have dreams because of austerity!?!?!
Why don’t you try a community college if yours is so expensive. And before you get on a soapbox to criticize someone, try READING exactly what they person said.
Further, college costs keep increasing because of how colleges/universities are run…..not your loan costs. Grow up, get a life.
Riiiiiiiiight. And I suppose peoples homes are being foreclosed on because of their own faults… has nothing to do with a subprime mortgage scam. I also suppose retirees are at fault for their pensions and retirements being squandered as well?
I partially agree with you, it is a double-edged sword and the cost that schools require does need to come down and they do need to use the money accordingly, totally agree there.
Also, we’re one of the few places that find it acceptable to ream our youth who want to better their lives by putting in the time and effort to go to college and further their education. Some places it’s even free. Only in a capitalist society would one get greedy and decide to profit so sickly from people who just want a better future.
Some of us were blessed to not be piss poor… others were not. And those who are not have a much bigger hill to climb to even get into a community college, let alone a university. We’re going to separate our classes so much that this country isn’t going to be worth a piss, lose all it’s diversity and become a fascist place to live for anyone not on the top.
At least my soapbox comes with a position of empathy instead of apathy.
We’re off topic now, but let’s agree to disagree.
Houses are being foreclosed on because people could not budget a safety net into the equation. I was laid off for 8 months… and even without unemployment I could make my COBRA payments for medical for the whole family, my mortgage, and all our other bills.
So some people made horrible financial decisions in buying a home and did not have the resources to survive a change in income.
Same for college students… I see some reasonable debt… but I also see kids going over $100k in debt for what? A liberal arts degree? A fine arts degree? Anthropology?… Heck.. over $100k on law school when there is a glut of lawyers? A recent study came out showing that if you actually went to school for a skill that was in demand, you had better odds at finding a job in your field and starting at higher earnings… another study showed the quality of instruction in community colleges is better… and you should put in your first two years there at a much lower cost…
Kids have been brain washed that they can be anything they want and that a college degree equals instant pay and success… it does not. They need to make better choices which means parents need to be more involved and k-12 education resources need to be more realistic with this kids.
If you’re poor, you get free student grants, free food stamps, free housing, unemployment, and all sorts of benefits. And, you don’t have to work… or even try to work! Want even more? Be irresponsible and have a few kids at 15, then you get more benefits.
We reward laziness and irresponsible behavior.
Los Angeleno, The “subprime scam” did not cause anyone to get foreclosed on their house. They got foreclosed because they did not make payments for many, many months and refused to work with the bank on some form of repayment schedule. They bought more house than they could afford. They assumed prices would go up forever and that they would always be employed and at a high salary. They made the decision. This is what happens in a free society. You get to choose what to do and you take the consequences.
As far as student loans go, this is the biggest scam. Lots of kids are mortgaging their future to get a college education. Those who get a degree in something valuable will be able to pay it back. But too many are going for the 4 years of party and getting a degree in something they like such as art, music, history, sociology, etc. These people need to understand that what they are doing is like borrowing money to go on an extended vacation. At the end they will have learned about the places they visited and have nice memories, but at some point they will go to work in some low paying job and have to pay the loan back.
Meanwhile some smart kid elsewhere is learning a trade like being a machinist and will enter the job market earning $60,000+ a year and have no debt. There is a real shortage of skilled workers due to the fact that now everyone goes to college. Problem is you can only use so many desk jockeys. And those that are used need to have useful degrees.
Val, what should your tax money go to? Bailing out banks and investment companies (they caused the mess), subsidizing oil companies (the most profitable companies on the planet) and other multi-national corporations, allowing the 1% to hide their money off shore or in investments? Perhaps, you want to continue to fund unnecessary foreign wars (2 billion a week in Afghanistan, $800 million borrowed to bankrupt your future as well as mine)or for the purchase military hardware that we don’t need or work like the f-22 ($394 million a piece not including the cost of up-keep. You are right, we should take it out of students, the elderly and the poor. Screw those whining bastards.
By the way, I paid for my college. Not my parents, not the government. Me, and it pisses me off that I pay taxes and I don’t have healthcare, free high-quality education, crumbling roads and bridges, and I am watching any hope of retirement get further pushed out into my golden years. And, it continues to get worse. Not because of education costs, eliminating the f-22 alone can solve that problem, but because of idiots like you who buy into this mean that things like education are somehow bankrupting us.
The price of goods and services depend on demand. Rents go for $1300+ per month because someone will pay that price. Right now MacDonalds in Williston ND is paying $18/hour because no one will work for less, the oil well area. If parents and high schools recommended trade school rather than “college for allregardless of ability” the price would soon drop…
I worked three jobs to put myself through college. I still came out with over $40k in student loan debt. Right now you cannot get a good paying job without a college education. I don’t know how long ago you went to school, but try finding a job now without a college education that will allow you to pay at least $15k a year in tuition and still be able to afford rent.
I agree. Part of the reason all these kids owe so much is that they have an unrealistic picture of how much they might make after graduation and unrealistic expectations of where they ought to go to college. Just because you qualify to get into Harvard or Cornell doesn’t mean you get to go there. My 30 year old daughter took “Maymester” at community college, took summer courses at community college, etc., to save money. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas with less than $5000 in debt, and she worked part time all the way through. If she hadn’t earned some partial scholarships (academic), she probably would have had to make other choices. But that was a part of her education, too — learning to be smart with her money by being frugal and by not going into debt!
Val – lovely that you have such high morals and that you could find a decent job that would allow you to work and attend class. My two children are in competitive fields – premed – class costs are not cheap, grades are a priority, books and cost of living are not factored into your response. In this 2012 that most of we are living in, jobs for youth are not there we are paying off 2 wars, letting our country crumble and loosing our youth and advantages in education due to the costs. The programs that in past might help have our youth are accessed by filling out online forms that “disqualify” the majority from federal assistance, so where do the jobless go for aid, where do the older citizens go for funds to get a new skill. I guess we can all think back to 1972 when my semester was 187.00 for full time university in TN, now that’s 7800.00 plus dorm (mandatory for freshmen), parking fees, activity fee, lab fees, etc and that is only for 15 hours if you take more that will be another 800.00. takes 110 hours at 7.86 to cover one class. EVEN good people cannot afford it without some subsidy. wake up USA – the terrorists are in Washington and they are not even being stroked by TSA for bombs, they finance bombs, they finance bailouts to “poor” banks, they only make 150K + fund raised for election, plus free medical, and don’t trust either party to solve it all. Government should not do that, who then, churches, rich hedgefund managers, aunt tillies mason jar…hope is built on an ability to attain dignity and success, hope is removed from USA?
THANK YOU!!! FEDERAL AID IS A JOKE. My sister’s tuiton and mine were more than THREE TIMES my mom’s income. How much federal aid did we get $0.00. Curious how much we got in loans after graduation? My sister graduated with honors from a 4 year college with less than 5k in debt. She went to grad school and came out with a whopping $160K that is now down to $120k. I graduated from a 4 year college while having 6 internships, 2 jobs and 27k in debt. And fyi – I didn’t buy $5 lattes. In fact a lot of days I went without eating because after running around between work/school I collapsed when I got home.
@ Val. Since the government allowed education to become a FOR PROFIT institution. Thats when. I also worked through college and saved up 5K before I graduated. That 5k WAS GONE IN 8 months at a COMMUNITY COLLEGE, while I worked and lived at home and made myself PBJ sandwiches everyday. I bet you didn’t have to spend 1K a semester on books either did you?? You better not be one of those people that complain about the cost of gas then with your superior attitude. The inflation on that is NOTHING compared to the inflation of education.
Wahl leetle lady i paid for two college degrees myself too and worked in hard blue collar jobs to do it one semi-skilled! But that was starting over fifty years ago and ended in! Education recently has no comparison to those times either in cost, availability to working class folks (not yuppie plastic land folks) and if you did it~that wuz then; this is now? It had to be a long time ago! Amerika is now governed by, for and of the privileged and not shard working people except in technical, technocrat, banking, finance or other “suits” positions. Industrial blue collar jobs have nearly disappeared and gettin’ rarer! Yah need to get up tah speed and realize things have changed one helluva lot!
The government isn’t paying for the educations. We are talking LOANS, which are paid back with interest. Do you not understand the difference between a loan paid back with interest and a give away?
The issue is keeping the interest rates fair and reasonable.
Hello,
For some of us, our families get screwed over — told that we can pay an amount when we cant. And then, when something happens, someone loses a job, you really cant. That doesn’t erase my debt. It is still there. I can’t pay my way through because that J O B that would allow me to do so is out of my reach (no college education, no job). I am not asking the government to pay. I am asking for my interest to remain where it is, not to double. Also, this is not just about paying for college — it is an economic issue. Put the all of the future generation in debt and what do you get? No consumers, and an economic drop-out. This issue is complex, and for me it boils down to a denial that we (working class) matter. But the point is, that if we cant/arent contributing to the economy, we all suffer. Those who want to raise loan interest, give tax cuts to billionaires who out-source they production for max profit, what have you, are not aware of this, or rather, they knowingly let us suffer with all the gain. They do not care, even if it will come back and bite them in the ass, BIG time…
I was given false promises by the schools I attended which did not live up to their stated intentions. Those promises involved licensure by the State for a professional career.
I thought Consumers Union was a fact based consumer product reporting organization….Know I’m realizing it’s becoming a political based group. The whole student load issue is misrepresented and slanted….in reality the rate increase would result in less than $10/month payment increase only for new specific type student loans, that isn’t payed until after school completed…..College is a personal informed choice of costs and opportunity. If you want to attack college costs, strike at the schools themselves with large endowment/trust funds and ask why they aren’t being applied to keep costs lower for students.
Austerity, nationwide, under a Corporatocracy. If you don’t see that both political parties are one-and-the-same… then I have nothing more to discuss with you on any forum, I mention this because you mention politics.
Why you wouldn’t be on the side of your neighbors and citizens is beyond me. Also, we’re all so thankful for you basically telling us that “we’re all uniformed” while you’re completely on the money, literally!
I deal with people like you all the time. You enter the room, tell everyone they’re wrong, put some spin on the topic (usually with complete BS)… and you think you’re golden. This is about manipulation and psychology, you’re not pulling wool over anyones eyes.
I agree with Val. I worked and paid my way through college. I’m helping my kids through college (while they work). All without debt. College is not an entitlement. We need to put more money in K- 12 education, but I disagree that everyone is entitled to a college education and it is not the taxpayers responsibility to subsidize debt.
Suzanne, let me ask you an important question. Would your kids be able to pay for college themselves entirely if you weren’t helping them? Did you help them out with their first car/car insurance also?
Great idea!
An uneducated country has a bleak future and a country where it takes 20 years (@ $750/month for my husband and I) to pay for a college education is greatly reducing the money available for purchasing (especially for those conscientious about buying locally) and injecting money back into the community. More money to banks only helps banks and their shareholders.
My husband and I worked through college, but could only afford housing, food, and books, very little money was able to go towards the cost of classes at that time (minimum wage doesn’t go too far).
Our kids’ college debt: $0. Instead of a 4000 sq ft house and $40,000 SUVs, we “made do” with 1700 sq ft and a couple of Honda Civics so we could save the needed money for their college education from the day they were born. Nevertheless, I have the greatest sympathy for the current crop of college kids, with costs rising way beyond what might be justified by inflation. Since these kids are the nation’s seed corn, costs should be subsidized by all of us through taxes; and the government should further help by avoiding the pending increase in college loan interest.
Fred… I am glad that you all were able to make things work like that. I, however, grew up eldest of six, father left when I was little, mother ended up on welfare (because you CANNOT support six children on a waitress’ salary, even back in the 1970s and also pay for childcare). So we already had three kids to a bedroom and a car more than 10 years old!!
I graduated high school and immediately joined the Marines… I never wanted to repeat my mothers mistakes!! At 46 years old, I finally completed my Bachelors’ degree last year, and now I’m working on my Masters’ degree. Since 2008 I’ve been unable to find suitable employment. Mostly, I’ve been doing part-time, or temporary, or seasonal jobs. So, it’s NOT just “kids” that need the help. I’ve got a plan working though… so I don’t have to be slave to 1. Someone else having to hire my “Mature” self! 2. IF Social Security really does disappear!! It’s an investment with which I must deal, but even with the Post-9-11 GI Bill, I’m up to around $70K in student loans!
I paid my way through undergraduate school (a private college – my last year tuition was $2100 in 67-68) by working full time and taking ‘national defense student loans’, which were 7% when a car loan was 5%. I also paid my way through grad school, a number of years later. I enlisted into the US Army in 1968 and while in the Army, paid off all my loans. I took the bus the school or car pooled until I was able to afford a ‘junker car’.
Today’s kids think they need all the latest gadgets, cell phones, etc. and latte’s, etc. In our state, the public university tuition is under 10K, which is manageable for a student who works and has loans.
As a final comment, I was in line at Starbucks a few months ago and the young lady in front of me was complaining about the increase in tuition (from $6000 to about $7000 a year at U WA) as she purchased her $4.50 latte and left a 50 cent tip. I asked her how many latte’s a day does she drank. She told me two to three. That’s $10 to $15 bucks a day. At $10 bucks a day that’s $2500 a year or almost a semester. She seemed unfazed when I mentioned this to her. She seemed that she was owed this.
Give me a break. Where are their priorities? Basic high school economics taught: Guns or Butter; or in this case, School or Latte’s.
Nope, I don’t have any sympathy for this. You don’t get a trophy for just showing up. Let them use their brain and figure it out. That’s what they will have to do when they get a job.
Couldn’t agree more. I live in a private college town and see the same kind of behavior and entitlement attitude. College has always been expensive when compared with average income.
Some people have this attitude, yes. As one of these liberal arts private college kids, I made it through undergrad on academic merit almost entirely. I had scholarships to cover everything and worked summers for gas money until my senior year when funding was cut. Suddenly half my tuition had to be paid up-front and out of pocket. I am lucky enough that my parents were able to afford this sudden $17000 cost, but I owe them that money now. My out-of-state graduate school (there are literally no programs in my home state for my degree) has placed me $40000 in debt, not counting interest, for a single year. Since when is this supposed to be practical? I literally cannot make a living in my field without a higher degree. And without receiving assistantships or federal aid, I cannot get a higher degree. I don’t eat out much, I don’t drink coffee, I buy almost exclusively food that is on sale, I am basically living off of ramen and spaghetti-os. How is this an entitlement attitude, how is punishing myself and others like me who work even harder to make a life for ourselves fair?
So true.
I’ve seen so many “poor” students receive financial aid (free grants, federal student loans) buying iPads, iPhones, Starbucks, pricey coffee, the most expensive dorms on campus, and more. What’s more, many of them refused to get a job. Some of their parents even refused to look for jobs, instead living off welfare, financial aid, and food stamps.
We’re punishing the middle class, and sending a terrible message: hard work will be punished, laziness will get you free money (federal grants, federal student loans that expire after a few decades of minimum payments, 508 housing, food stamps, and more). All the while, these students (and their parents) are sponging off the system, spending excessively on needless gadgets and expensive luxuries.
It’s wrong that we’re punishing the smart kids who just happened to come from middle class homes. We’re not helping the kids who actually are working hard, studying, and trying. Instead, we’re giving money to overly entitled kids who buy luxury goods and refuse to even try to get jobs.
If a student receiving federal student loans or grants refuses to get a job working 20 hours a week, they should receive no aid.
If a person on welfare refuses to submit 5 resumes a week, and turns down any offers of employment (whether fast food or desk jobs), they should receive no further aid. Welfare of all sorts (unemployment, food stamps, etc.) should never be given more than 6 months. And, every person receiving it should only be able to receive it a certain number of times in life. Stop rewarding laziness with free money.
@nadadp… Whoa!! there sweetie… don’t throw all “poor” folks into the same basket! Yeah, there are folks who are ignorant and “entitled,” but who says all the “smart kids” come from “middle class” families. I am highly offended at this sweeping generalization!
As for your “answer” that students not working (because I don’t know how you can ACTUALLY PROVE that they refuse)should receive no aid… I was working in my school (work study) only 4 hours a week, because that was all that was available to me! And then they cut hours and I lost my 4 hours… also I am older and since 2008 have been unable to get suitable employment, especially now at my school (a small college of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine- that has 80% of its classes on weekdays, and most classes have only one section). My 22 year-old son (who will be starting school next semester, in part because he too has been unable to get suitable employment) and I are in constant threat of running out of food, but can’t get any food stamps because we don’t work 20 hours… I would gladly work 20 hours so that I wouldn’t NEED to go, swallow my pride, and ask for freakin’ food stamps… but, I can’t get it UNLESS I work 20 hours. How is THIS any kind of “Safety Net??”
I’m with Jon. I joined the Coast Guard to earn my veterans’ education benefits and combined them with Pell Grants and working on the side to get out of school with under $10,000 of debt. My degree in a hard science let me pay off my loans in 3 years.
I’m sorry, but a college degree (ANY college degree) is no guarantee of a good job after graduation. You have to plan it and pay it ahead. I am very grateful for my liberal arts experience, but it was the calculus and engineering that paid the bills.
A skilled trade can also be a financially and emotionally rewarding experience. THINK before you leap into debt because you’re not in high school any more.
Let’s focus on where the problem lies. The House passed an extension of current rates a month ago. However, the Democrats-controlled Senate is holding up passage for re-election purposes. Write or email your Democrat Senator and them to stop playing politics and pass the House bill, or at least pass their own version so that negotiations between the Senate and House can begin.
Hey Val,
I agree, but think about a scenario. A bright student who can go to med-school to become a doctor. Med school costs 50,000 + a year. Now tell me who is going to pay that student 50,000 dollars every year so that they can continue my medical education? Is there any job out there that can pay that much amount plus extra money for daily expense?
Will loans do? YES.
If very few could afford that education? If loans are not there then only the kids of really rich parents can afford med school. In this scenario can you think quality of doctors we will have if medical school is not competitive?
Same goes for engineers or scientists. Education is expensive. And if one can pay for college without loans, you are doing the right thing, no need to go to college.
Going back to school was a huge mistake. I wanted to get a better job so I could by a home for my grandchildren (Whom I had gained custody of.) What I got instead was a massive debt that will take decades to pay off, and a guarantee to have to work till I’m 80 years old to do it. (I’m 53.) Pay as you go would have been nice, except that the cost was around what I already earn – eating and living indoors being a must. I would have been in school till I was too old to work. The cost of higher education is now such that only the rich will be able to afford it.
Why don’t we question why a college education costs so much. The increases that universities publish every year don’t get questioned. We also need some accountability that the money borrowed for college is used for that purpose. I know personally of students that have used the borrowed money to pay their rent, go on nice vacations and buy ‘stuff’. I would like to do that too, but I am responsible and work for a living while paying for my education as I attended classes. Yes, I didn’t finish in 4 years, but I have no student debt either. No more entitlements — I can’t afford them!
Many of you are missing the point because you are too hung up on feeling superior to other people. Who cares how you did it? Everyone else is not you, so some others will be able to do the same and others won’t be able to for a wide variety of reasons. So get over yourselves. You’re not superior.
Also, no one in this discussion has suggested students be “given” anything! For Christ’s sake, when did so-called educated people forget what a Loan is? Repayment of the borrowed amount plus even one dollar of interest repaid results in a profit for the lender! All this issue is about is keeping the interest rates reasonable! During the G.W. Bush years, private sector lenders made out like bandits at the expense of our nation’s young people! Now far too many of them are so deeply in debt for their degrees they can’t afford to marry and start families. It is true for students who worked the entire time they were in college as well as the fewer who didn’t, and the average student is taking at least five years to graduate now because they have to work and sometimes have to take breaks due to lack of funds to pay for their needs. It is cruel what we allowed to happen to them! And it is bad for our own futures!
If we were smart, we’d cut private lenders out of the picture altogether. We’d be giving direct student loans from the federal government, just like the ones I got in the 1970s, at a fair and reasonable interest rate, and with no trickery or sleazy methods of tacking on undeserved fees (which happened rampantly over during those same Bush years), and we the people would be paid back with interest.
Most students do pay back their loans and they always have, and they do so in the highest numbers when the loans are manageable. We, via the federal government would make a profit and those students would pay more in taxes during their working lives too.
But no, instead we are going to engage in sanctimonious finger pointing and lack of empathy, screwing all of us over ultimately. And if we can’t even figure out that a loan at a 3.5 to 5% interest rate is NOT a giveaway entitlement, then we deserve the messed up country we’ve ended up with. A government by the people when the people are ignorant and stupid is a lousy government system to live under. Just look at us now!
C. Scrim… paying rent is allowable… vacations, NO!! Stuff… NO!! Computer and books… YES!! Food (within reason)… YES!! Hot dates, and frat parties… NO!!
If by, “No more entitlements…” you mean cut folks off… you are NUTS! There are plenty of us, who deserve a shot, AND these are LOANS!! Not GRANTS!! THEY DO NOT add much at all to the federal budget, especially, when you compare the cost of just one fighter jet to the cost of the student loan program!!
To the ignorant and those who last read the news 10 years ago.
The government is not paying for someone’s education. No one is getting education for free. It is a LOAN. You pay interest on it. The government makes money. Yes there is a number of people who default on their loans. It is not different from those who default on their mortgage or credit card payments. It is called a business risk. If the business module of lending money to people is a bust then it would have disappeared and died out early in it’s infancy, after it was lunched. Credit and lending money is what drives our economy. I make good money and I had to borrow money for my kid to go to a $50000/yr college. Yes you can go to school on your own without borrowing money, but what school is that? Even the most prestigious state schools cost over $20000 per year. On the other hand Federal Loans helped many highly achieving and smart people to go to the best colleges in the country. You will meet these people in the community every day. Great doctors,engineers, scientists and others. Because someone is financially at a disadvantage it dose not mean they cannot compete against the privileged. This what makes America the envy of the world. AGAIN THE GOVERNMENT MONEY IS NOT FREE.If you do not pay it back they will go after you.
Right! Thank you!
God. it is so depressing how foolish, shortsighted, judgmental, and ignorant so many Americans are.
Unfortunately, that’s not always true.
Federal student loans can be discharged after a few decades of payments. Private student loans, however, never go away.
Federal student loans and grants punish the working middle class.
Why should one student get more aid than another more achieved student, just because they are poorer? Aid should be based on merit and achievements, not money.
What kind of message are we sending to the middle class kids?
Refuse to get a job, live off welfare, then the government will pay for your college education, apartment, and food stamps? Sad.
I usually agree heartily with CU on issues, but I take exception to this effort. College costs are out of control and relieving kids of their lawfully accepted college debt will only work to continue that trend. The market must push back on colleges to get their costs under control and a government bailout will work against the normal reforming effects of the market.
There are solutions for kids in debt, even in these difficult economic times. One of my employees is going to North Dakota to work in the oil fields to pay off his debt. If the oil fields are not to your liking, then go to South Dakota where unemployment is also quite low and the state regularly advertises to get more workers. South Dakota is not the moon and college educated kids without a job should seriously consider making that move so that they can do the responsible thing and pay back the debt they incurred. Since when did we start thinking that it had to be easy to discharge college debt? Work your way out of this one kids, and make sure you tell your children to be VERY careful about incurring debts they will be uncomfortable paying off.
Who said anything about relieving them of the debt? Making it fair does not relieve the of the debt. They still have to pay it back with interest, and the interest is pure profit.
Please, for the entire country’s sake, start actually reading what is being debated, what is really driving these issues, and what plans are being considered before you form opinions and then vote on them. Please!
Just genius Debra!! So what happens when a mass exodus of unemployed move into South Dakota?? Surely the unemployment rate THERE will skyrocket!! You have to find the place where there is NO UNEMPLOYMENT, where they are BEGGING for SKILLED workers!! I wonder where this magickal land might be?!
You are also taking a lot of assumptions here. If someone trained for the “wrong” field, wherever they go they will be paid the same LAME wages!! My Bachelors degree is in Health Care Management… sounds good, right?? Thus far, the jobs I would be qualified for… they want NURSES for!! AND the jobs I could likely get (if I weren’t in my mid-forties), are looking for High School Grads. What a waste!
This is why I’m back in school to become an Acupuncturist and Oriental Medicine practitioner… AND I will have the ability to oversee the business functions of my own Natural Wellness clinic!
Each of us must CREATE our own answers! You have the skills and the brains, now figure out the new paradigm, as needed to fix your situation!
While I still owe over $60K in student loan, I don’t agree with the logic that the government needs to continue subsidizing it. I think the main problem is that the college expenses have grown at a much faster pace than an individual’s purchasing power. Subsidized interest rates simply push the burden of inflated college fees from an individual to all tax-payers.
I would rather see a market-oriented approach. Make the colleges publish numbers on how much their grads make 1, 3, 5, 10 years after graduation. This will make it much easier to decide if the college is going to be worth the cost. Once higher education stops being a sellers’ market, the colleges will be forced to figure out how to offer the same education more cheaply.
Since our culture, and our states and federal governments decided at some point that all professionals had to have a college degree, and now usually a Masters degree, to even be interviewed let alone hired, good luck finding a career that pays a livable wage without a college degree. Now that most jobs require a degree, increasingly Masters degree, no matter how unnecessary one really is to the success of an individual in their chosen profession, and we have little manufacturing jobs left, I guess young people can pick fruit, fry burgers, or wait tables for the rest of their working lives. No healthcare, unable to afford rents, mortgages, illnesses, and children, life will be just peachy for all of us in the future.
As a single mom, I put myself through junior college and also paid off my bachelors degree at the end of my degree program. Unfortunately, at the ripe old age of 58, I knew I could not continue to be marketable in the business world – competing with “the young”. I decided to go back for a masters degree, with the focus of obtaining a degree in counseling, because I knew “retirement” would be a thing of the past by the time I was ready to retire at 67 (and, yes, retirement age for me is 66 years and 9 months). In order to support oneself these days, you cannot realistically think you can survive on social security without having to work too. With counseling, I can work for myself. With that said, I returned to school and didn’t think I would qualify for student loans at my age. Well, I did get student loans, and I’m in debt for alot of money! I will pursue loan forgiveness programs and give back to the community. However, I will still be in debt until my death. For those comments indicated here – about how you paid your way through college “back in the days” – I totally get it because I am old too. When I went to high school, only about 1/3 of the students went on to college, 1/3 went to trade schools, and 1/3 went on to work. However, for today’s students where it is expected you go to college after high school, and the fact that you can’t even get a receptionist job today without a 4 year college degree . . . it is an entirely different world out there. Learning a trade used to be an honorable profession. Today, trades are a thing of the past. The U.S. has to outsource to obtain “trained” individuals in the trades. Things are so different today, and even job searches and interviewing strategies have become so difficult, you almost need a Ph.D in human resources, psychology and marketing to understand how things are done and what is expected of you! There are also issues with computer software programs you need to know, being bilingual, and also being experienced in specialized fields. It is such a complex world, it is almost impossible to keep up with what is expected of you. The only thing I see that has remained the same is age discrimination; yet, we are now living well into our 80′s and 90′s, so retiring at 58 (the original age of retirement) is a thing of the past. So, unless you are fully familiar with the job market, what companies are looking for, and know the competition these young adults are faced with, it isn’t fair to be so critical. Just count your blessings you don’t have to deal with what the young generations have to cope with, because I truly respect all the young adults struggling in this ever-changing world we live in.
Great post, I could not agree with you more. The Baby Boomers ruined everything for any generation that followed period. And I’m willing to bet half the self-righteous people on here are in-fact from the “Baby Boomer” generation.
Thanks Irma… I am right behind you at 46… age discrimination, Social Security’s threatened existence, etc… all sent me back for my Master’s. I figure I can practice Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine even into my 90s, so long as I don’t get Alzheimer’s or something.
I agree that college costs have gone nuts. Colleges and Universities are not run like a business, they don’t have to answer to anyone except their ‘football coaches’.
My wife worked for a private college (top 35 in the country) and the school program there was for the prof to teach 3 – 2 – 3. That meant 3 courses one semester, 2 the next, so on. A sabbatical after 5 years with full pay. That’s BS. I was a business person, I didn’t get a sabbatical after 5 years.
If the schools put the prof’s feet to the fire (and K-12) also, then maybe we’d lower the costs.
K-12 — the teacher’s union…. The only profession that I know of where you are required to have a college degree or a masters but the worst teacher and the best teacher get the same raise. Where’s the carrot and stick. In business you are paid for performance.
Let’s understand that everyone won’t graduate, let’s understand that everyone doesn’t want to go to college, let’s understand that some would rather be in the trades and gear our schools towards those goals. Some won’t graduate or learn a trade, they’ll be unskilled workers; some will learn a trade and grow in their profession, some will go on to college and achieve their goals.
In K-12 let’s raise the bar. Demand Mediocrity and you’ll get something less. Maybe it’s time for school to be year round.
Stop complaining and go to a school you can afford. Government interference only serves to increase the cost of higher education.
The college loan problem is both the fault of the US Government and the student. I received my college degree in 1980. It took me six years, because I funded myself as much as possible through jobs. It is no longer necessary to go to an expensive school in order to get hired. Two years in a community college that transfers to a University is just as good. As a matter of fact more money is being made by the technical person than someone with a general liberal arts or science degree. Just ask your auto mechanic or HVAC technician.
The government is stupid to allow the continuation of college loans to already heavy in debt students. It does not hurt to take more than four years to get the education. No one has informed the student of the ramifications of accumulating mountains of debt over a four year period in hopes to pay it back. If incomes after graduation can not support a $150,000 home loan just what makes one think they can pay back a 150K educational debt? There is no common sense applied on either end. It should not be the taxpayers responsibility to subsidize this process until it is improved.
There are two huge problems with this:
a) If you are a student on any kind of scholarship, the cost of your tuition can grow immensely after four years. I know of NO scholarship that is renewable after four years. This makes taking more than four years even more impractical for a great number of students.
b) Taxpayers are not necessarily subsidizing this. It is a LOAN. Whatever happens with defaults, etc., is more than made up for in the interest payments from the millions of students who pay their loans back in full. The government in no way loses money; by design, they earn a substantial amount.
Val….guess you live in a ‘dream’ world, certainly not in reality. I suppose you paid for college by living with Mommie &
Daddie, with all expenses paid. When you paid for education, you paid for those in colleges who are sitting in air conditioned offices and driving high-end cars.
My niece graduted with BS from Drexel Univ., and just graduated with Masters from Austin Univ. All thru college years she worked 2-3 jobs for living expenses. She has accepted employment in Austin in order to start paying down some of her $80K in tuition loans. She would prefer to return to the East Coast where we do understand how injurious college tuitions are today, and that the Government should take action.
It is a disgrace in our country that our politicians can fund elections, wars, bail-outs, etc., but our young people cannot afford an education. They are our future!
I suppose I could correctly guess that you live in one of those ultra-conservative Republican states where they brainwash folks that Social Security, Medicare, Women’s Rights, etc. should all be eliminated. They would like to see the middle class and less fortunate living in ten cities since only the wealthy matter. This is just another form of discrimination.
I am 71 yrs. old, retired and would be in a tent city without SS and Medicare. I know folks who went to college on the GI Bill and thanks to that are living successfully today paying their share of taxes, etc. — Republicans call the GI Bill welfare!
Hopefully, with the next election we will remain and all-inclusive United States of America!
Sincerely, Barbara (a successful senior paying her share)
Barb – THANK YOU!!!!! I’m applauding you right now – giving you a standing ovation!!
Applause! Applause!
In the 60s and 70s, no one had to give up the dream of a college education due to lack of money. Millions of us managed to go thanks to federal grants and loans, and then the vast majority of us paid back those loans with at a fair interest rate (mine was capped at 5%) and we’ve been paying taxes from our professional incomes ever since! As a people, we invested in our citizens, our infrastructure, and our youth back then. Now we don’t, and look at the fine mess we are in!
Barb, You are one screwed up person. How can you say something like “I am 71 yrs. old, retired and would be in a tent city without SS and Medicare.” and expect anyone to respect your life choices. There are folks like Val that made good life choices and KNOW that you can still make it in this country without a government handout. Are you aware that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and that many old folks have drained their accounts (read: money they’ve paid in with a moderate return on their investment included) and they are now essentially on a form of welfare. For you to say you’ve led your life to end up having to rely on social security is well, very sad and very frustrating to those of us that have to support you while knowing the system will be out of money when we get our shot. How can you say you are “a successful senior paying her share”? Really? Maybe you have dementia and if so I apologize for pimping you but if that is not the case, shame on you.
Now, I’ve got to get back to work to pay your bills (and many other folks who have screwed up their lives so that they don’t have to live in tents if we cut their social security a little to try to make the fund solvent).
Consumer Union – get out of politics!
Ken
Ken: That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard today. I am 23, so I get the whole embitterment-woe-is-me-the-government-isn’t-there-for-me thing. But these people paid into social security for all of their working lives, the same as you. The problem is not a 71 year old living with the devaluation of their money in a failing economy; the problem is irresponsible spending on the part of the government and the extreme number of baby boomers that are now retiring. Not everyone can make the high-five and low-six figure salaries that are now needed to remain continually financially solvent in many areas. And the fund will be solvent much longer than many propagandists are telling you. Maybe not long enough to fund me, but I have no problem with paying money in to something that will make the lives of my parents and grandparents easier, just as they paid it in for themselves and for other people.
Ken, you are obviously a marginally intelligent, conservative… living off the BS that they sell on Fox News and Glen Beck. Let me point something out to you… Social Security, up until I think it was the late sixties or early seventies, was a PROTECTED fund and it was fine… and then those greedy SOBs in Congress decided it would be OK to borrow against it… for things like, keeping that OH SO IMPORTANT, COLD WAR going, buying multi-million dollar jets, etc. Our politicians SCREWED our retirement fund, so they could play “Big Brother” to the whole wide world.
I haven’t checked, but I’d be willing to bet money (and I damn-near never bet money) that this is right around the same time they setup a separate retirement and medical fund for Congress…
Bravo Barbara, I concur with Carol.
I’d like to see how many of those B**tards in Congress EVER put their butt on the line by serving this nation?? Like I did!
I drove trucks in Iraq and Kuwait for a whole year (on top of the other 11 years of service in the Reserves and National Guard)… and I get 36 months of benefits at 60% of tuition & fees and 60% of housing allowance, and a small amount for books. This semester my books and supplies (Sphygmomanometer, stethoscope, moxa supplies and tools, cupping supplies, needles, etc… and an armful of 3 to 4 inch thick texts) cost like $800!! They sent me $325.
Will Consumers Union cherry pick the data or will they have the guts to use people’s pictures who owe nothing? I wonder.
I worked through college to get those “awful” degrees in accounting/finance.
It was painful. Costs today are way out of proportion to how they “used” to be. Expectations today are that you have a degree. You can’t jsut go out and find blue collar jobs with pensions anymore.
To those older folks complaining about how they paid thier dues- It is the current working young that are paying for your nice little social security check you get every month. A check we all know will not be there when we retire. So, instead of complaining, how about you support the next generation that is working to get good jobs to pay for YOUR social security ponzi scheme.
@ApolloGenX – no need to take such a condescending tone. The people on social security today worked their whole lives to pay for it. While you make a good point, it is lost amid your disrespectful attitude.
Yes, well the government should have managed it better. Now young people are indentured servants paying for old people’s entitlements, while we expect nothing to be there when we are old. Why should we have to pay all our lives for nothing? Because you did? No thanks.
Meanwhile, we have nostalgic musings about how it used to be, and while it’s nice to puff out your chest and talk about how you walked to school in the snow uphill both ways, that is completely irrelevant in the context of the highly competitive global job market where the youth of today are competing. I am sorry if my attitude is disrespectful, but the comments have been condescending, dismissive, and downright out of touch with reality.
That may or may not be true, however, you will be them in fewer years than you realize. Put 50 or 60 years under your own belt, and you’ll be seeing things a lot differently, yourself. (I know this from experience.)
Yes, I will be that age in 50 years. The difference is that I am not planning on depending on government programs to support me in my old age. I might be paying into social security now, just like those people did- but I am not so foolish as to believe the government will magically provide me. “The government” is not a retirement plan, and I must contribute to the black hole of social security, while still contributing to retirement accounts, investing, and otherwise planning for a retirement without Social Security.
Yes, I will be there in 50 years. The difference is that it won’t take me the 50 years to learn the lesson – not to depend on the government. My parents -baby boomers- taught me that lesson. They were not so foolish to rely on government programs, and neither am I. They are also not a burden on me financially because they were self reliant and planned. Traits it seems others of their generations missed.
You know, those programs weren’t called “entitlements” until the Reagan years. It used to be they were considered programs to keep people out of poverty and that they were good for the country. The Republicans started using new terminology so the people would turn against the very programs and expectations of fairness in employment and education that had been developed in response to previous corruption and suffering. It worked. The press started using the new terminology and now everyone does, and with it arrived the negative attitudes those negative connotations were expected to foster.
There is absolutely no reason social security can’t be here for younger generations, other than a refusal to expect the most wealthy among us to pay social security taxes on more of their income. As it is now, the vast majority of us, from the working poor to the middle class, pay social security taxes on 100% of our incomes. Bill Gates doesn’t though. No wealthy people do. Everyone pays the same, up to $100, 680.00 of our income. Every dime over that amount is social security tax free. If we would stop protecting the rich at the expense of the rest of us, we would raise the cap just a little. Even a 2% hike in the cap would set things right. Raise 3 or 4% and it would be fat city for generations to come. Would it harm people making millions a year to pay social security taxes on just a little more of their income? No, of course not! Would it hurt the country? Of course not! Would help the country? Absolutely! But Americans can’t be that smart apparently. We fall for the Orwellian propaganda instead and shoot ourselves in our collective foot.
Correction: That should read all of us pay social security taxes on $106, 800.00 of our yearly income. The person who earns $9,000.00 a year pays SS taxes on all $9000.00. The person supporting a family of four on $25 or $30,000.00 a year pays SS taxes on the entire amount. Millionaires and billionaires? Bill Gates? Oprah? David Letterman? George Bush? Dick Cheney? Ted Turner? All of them, and all the others and their trust fund babies partying with the money instead of “creating jobs” for us, they pay SS on only $106, 800.00 of their yearly income and not a penny above that. All the rest, is gravy with which to make more money.
Be more respectful of your elders, and blame the right parties. Remember too, many of us are boomers with no retirement funds because we spent all of our money on our children and our funds continue to be drained by your generation because our economy is tanked and we won’t support progressive plans to right the ship again. I know many younger people who are much more self-motivated at the expense of their neighbors than I do baby boomers, because our generation benefited from what this nation refused to provide to your generation. It breaks our hearts because our own children are struggling, and thus, so are we because we cannot abandon them to poverty, while at the same time we are fearful of our own impending senior years because we do not have the retirement savings and pensions our parents had. In fact, currently, elderly people receiving Medicare can’t even find doctors who will accept it so they are going without healthcare!
Yep. Blame the real guilty parties.
I feel for you, I really do. My parents are baby boomers. The sad truth is that the economy has tanked, but it’s baby boomer leadership that got us there. It’s baby boomers who overspent. It’s baby boomers that made pensions untenable, and who mismanaged them.
That is not to say that baby boomers didn’t also help make significant social progress.
The truth is that baby boomers experienced a lot of wealth generated by their predecessors and were not as equipped to deal with hard times. Because of that, hard times are now being visited on my generation, which in many cases has more in common with grandparents than parents, due to economic issues. I truly hope that your children or others can help make sure that you are secure as you get older. I know that taking care of parents is a major issue for my generation.
There’s no point blaming anyone, as that solves nothing. There’s also no point being resentful or witholding toward the next generation that is struggling and doing all they can to succeed in the situation at hand.
It’s a time of economic reckoning, and the only ones that can succeed are those that can band together and struggle together- those who blame, curse, or isolate themselves will fail. No one can do it alone in these times- but with a little compassion for the students, a little compassion for the elderly, and a lot of work, the country can rebound. (Unless those pesky politicans keep siphoning off money for pet projects, kickback contracts, and tax loopholes)… grrrrr.
I went back to college at the age of 40 and hence was told a bunch of lies by the admissions advisor. The fact they said 7% wasn’t all that bad of a interest rate is ridiculous. My loan doubled to $64,000.00 dollars as son as I graduated. Are we the poor and middle class getting a break like the Wall Street Thieves? Hell No! One last thing, keep your kids out of the military and let the wealthy send their kids to the front lines AND GET A FIRST HAND LOOK AT DEATH.
You shouldn’t be enrolling in college at the age of 40 if you don’t realize what a good versus bad interest rate is. A 40 year old should be capable of researching and making wise education choices. You’re not 18 anymore. Your life, your responsibility.
Hey np…
F*%& YOU!! I served this country in the military for 12 years and, in between raised my kids!! If you are trained in the, oh so desired field of communications, as a radio operator in the military and you apply for a dispatcher position in the “real world”… they tell you you don’t have experience!! If you serve in our great military as a truck driver, you still have to sell your soul to the devil OR pay a high tuition to get a civilian CDL license… Little child… please do not speak about things which you have no Gawd Damn knowledge!!
I’m taking responsibility for my life in training for 1. Something I LOVE… and 2. Something I can do till I’m 90!!
It is pretty damn disgusting though, that all those DRAFT-DODGERS from the Vietnam Era, who racked up lots of student debt getting 2 and 3 PhDs so they could avoid getting drafted… Later, when they forgot their Hippie morals and became the rich, business owners and politicians… excused THEIR OWN student loan debt…
Just sayin’
In the late 70′s, my undergrad education cost $100/semester. I could work, go to school and pay my bills. But with educational costs well over $10k per year, students can’t do this. Rather, they become crippled by debt. Investing in education is an investment in our society, our community, and the individual’s future.
Yeah, and when I went to Community College in Oceanside, Ca in the early 1990s, you paid $6 per credit hour, if you didn’t yet have a Bachelor’s degree… and $50 per credit hour if you did. The next year, we fought the increase to $50 per credit hour for all. Then my husband was transferred to the Walter Reed Complex in Wash., DC, so I don’t know what happened then, but, the tuition in California State Schools (including Community Colleges) has gone up.
I have two degrees, the second one completed at age 45 after seeing a need to change professions in changing times. I took out 25k in loans to complete my degree, but I knew the profession I would be going into would easily pay these loans back. It has been five years now since I graduated and have paid off my loans.
Going to college is an investment, if you earn a degree that qualifies you for a $35k a year job at a school that costs $20k a year you are making a poor investment. It is your responsibility to make smart choices for your future, it is not the tax payers responsibility to pay for your poor choices,
Well, where do you go to a quality school now days at 20K/year??? Have not seen that one, even the Junior colleges are approaching that number. My son goes to college (freshmen year) at 45K/year which is more in line with today’s cost. I only wish that 25K would cover 4 years of college, but not in this century!!
You are missing the point Carl, you go to college to get a job so make sure the investment is going to pay off. Pretty simple really.
How exactly do you “make sure” your investment will pay off? Is there some sort of “guarantee” as to the kind of job you will get after graduating? I don’t think so!
What is the alternative? Not going to college, and guaranteeing an income earning limit by not having a degree? That is a fool’s choice.
The bottom line is that like with other investments, there is no “guarantee” of a specific return. There are, however, rampant high tuition rates.
Please stop acting like students are not tax payers. Many students either work while going to school, or hopefully work and pay taxes after school when they are employed. They are also children of taxpayers. These are loans, not free money. The loans have to be repaid.
I wonder if you feel just as strongly about tax payers subsidizing Fannie home loans to stabilize the lending market? If you own a home, you benefitted from that setup directly or indirectly.
The bottom line is that this is just a way for the country to help maintain a quality citizenry and we all benefit. The loans get repaid, and the country gets a better quality workforce. If you have ever had to hire people, you would know that the benefit of educated people extends beyond just the student. It also helps companies- who pay taxes.
There are no guarantees, but you can hedge your bet by getting a degree in a profession that has the income potential to allow you to pay off your loan. I would hate to see the student loan business go the way of the recent mortgage loan disaster, our country can not afford it.
The cost of higher education needs to be cut, our government can not increase its debt, but we could cut out waste at public institutions.
If you want to attend a private institution you need to carry the cost not the tax payer. I am a strong believer in our public universities and believe it is the student that makes the difference not the school.
The problem is students not working and going too far into debt.
Additionally, the middle class students are punished for having parents who actually have a job and don’t get financial aid.
Financial aid rewards people who don’t work, can’t work, and refuse to work. Students of people unemployed, even by choice, receive tons of financial aid. I’ve met plenty of students who sponge the grant system because their parents were “poor” (a.k.a., lazy and refused to even try to find a job). Many of these students didn’t work.
Federal financial aid needs reform. The middle class students shouldn’t be punished because their parents actually make money. Federal student loans can expire after a few decades of minimum payments, meaning that federal student loans don’t always get paid back.
Additionally, all students receiving any sort of grant or federal student loans should be required to work no less than 20 hours per week. Anything less, and it’s a lazy free ride.
Ok ApolloGenX… I was with you right to that last line… “It also helps companies- who pay taxes.” Lord knows we could argue that statement for hours… Let’s just agree, that there are many (especially large companies) who do not pay their fair share of taxes.
Whether by getting tax breaks from old cronies doing them a favor, or like Sears, here in Illinois, by blackmail (they threatened to pull out of Illinois if they did not get a sufficient tax break).
I would have personally handled Sears by saying… 1. No tax-break… 2. Legislation stating that companies who pull their business out of the state have to pay an EXHORBITANT State Exit Tax!!
Please, please stop sending photo’s and comments to these morons in government. Complain and phone and e-mail these idiots all you want and it means absolutely NOTHING!!! You are dealing with the most inept, stupid, idiotic, moronic, self serving bunch of jerks in the history of our country. They do not care about you, or your children, or your grand-children only themselves. We elected a new bunch of idiots after the last bunch of idiots could not do anything yet we have the same idiots as before. This November we will elect a new bunch of do-nothing idiots to replace the current do-nothing idiots and expect something different….. not going to happen. I am already $30,000 in debt for my child’s education and expect that to probably double after the idiots are finished doing nothing. I am already resigned to that fact and hoping for a better outcome is ridiculous, THE IDIOTS IN CONGRESS WILL DO NOTHING!!! Continuing to vote for new idiots every 4 years is just a total waste of time.
In that case, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!
EXACTLY!!! Or you can believe that you make a difference with the morons!!!! NOT!!!
If everyone shared your opinion, there would still be slavery! Thanks, but you go right on sitting on your thumbs, and I’ll take my chances with the “morons.”
What a dumb-ass reply.. Don’t waste anyone’s time and yes continue to have faith in the Morons… Of course you realize you are in the 10% approval group on what congress is doing… CONGRATULATIONS! And yes, I shall continue to “sit on my thumbs” because Super Pacs now elect government officials in case you missed that one. PS; can’t quite get the unintelligible “slavery” remark….
Oh yeah, as an addendum to my last comment, No!!! congress or the senate does not care about what you think.. Their approval rating is now around 10%, so the OBVIOUSLY DO NOT CARE WHAT WE THINK!!
55andstillworrying: your children do not have to be in pre-med. That was their (and your) choice. What if you had said, “I can’t afford it?” Or haven’t your children ever been told that? There are plenty of other careers out there. Your situation is no different than the country’s situation. We are spending money we don’t have, pushing programs we can’t afford, and then expecting someone to come along and bail us out. That’s not how the world works. If you can afford a 1600 square foot home, that’s what you buy–not a 3000 square foot home. Buy a Honda Civic if that’s what your budget dictates, not a Mercedes. This is the lesson we have failed to teach our children, and going into unreasonable debt or allowing your children to go into staggering debt to pay for an education they can’t afford, just reinforces the idea that they should have whatever they want, whether they can afford it or not. College is over-priced partly because we have allowed them to get away with it. Take a serious look at how colleges spend money. They seem to have the same attitude our government has…spend, spend, spend – after all, someone else will pay the bill. Most large (and some small) colleges have amenities that are completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, the thing that colleges seem to work the hardest at is trying to figure out the next great attraction they can spend money on. For the most part, college professors are overpaid and underworked, and the few who will be honest with you will tell you that they have life made. Do your complaining to the colleges, not the taxpayers. We’ve had about enough. The problem is not the interest rate, it’s the cost of education. Furthermore, from everything I have read here, most of you feel you won’t be able to pay back the money you have borrowed at the low rates, so what difference does it really make? Our family income is about $50,000 per year, and you think we should help pay for your kids to become doctors so they can charge me $200 every time I walk in the door? Geesh…I don’t think so.
I agree with you, Chris. The problem is also the Board of Regents that controls the costs of State Universities. It seems that each academic year there is an increase in the cost of tuition. This poses some big financial problems to those who enrolled at one price and have that price changed as they attend school, often every year. This leads me to believe that the source of the problem is not the loans but instead is the university system. This is not a Federal problem. Involving the federal government will probably make matters worse. Costs of higher education is something each state should examine for the good of its citizenry who are partly funding education through some kind of taxation. Therefore, it should be up to all citizens in each state to ask why the need for tuition hikes, and who is going to fund them. This is just the tip of the iceberg of rampant, irresponsible spending on the part of universities and the states. This is being passed to the students and all citizens in rather clandestine ways. I truly believe the best place to start with getting some control of the costs of higher education is with the executive and legislative branches of each State. The first place I would look would be the university faculty expenses and justifications for class loads, hours of student contact, and cost per hour. The inquest should obtain a freeze on all tuition hikes for as long as this takes, then release faculty who are unnecessary. Isn’t this how it is done in the business world? And, yes, as far as my college education goes, we were forced to live within our means as we got college degrees. I was on the G.I. Bill and worked several jobs at a time to make ends meet while I earned a Master’s Degree. But there were very few tuition hikes of the like we see today. If the costs to the states are too high to afford something or someone at a university, then the state has to wait until it can afford it. I don’t think the loans are the problems as much as the institutions’ attitudes about how valuable they deem themselves to be.
Also a prime point. My undergraduate institution (private, liberal arts) luckily gave me a full ride for three of my four years. And in the four years I was there, tuition rose from $31000 a year to $41000 a year. I owe my parents $17000 due to a cut in scholarship funding my last year. In what way at all is that practical for almost anyone? Especially having gone in with the expectation that based on academic merit I could keep my full ride. My college now calls me twice a year asking me for money that I can no way afford to give them because of my now $40000 in loans to go to a public university for graduate school (basically essential to obtain a job in my field). The price hikes and phone-a-thons say, to me, that higher education has become too much of a focus on profit, rather than actually educating students.
About your opinion regarding the “Morons…” Takes one to know one!!
I have always said that intelligent people, recognize intelligence in others (where it exists, of course)… but, Morons believe ALL are morons… if it makes you feel better about yourself Carl, then enjoy it… because that is all you will ever see!
I am sympathetic to these borrowers but one has to wonder, by artificially suppressing the costs of borrowing are we not enabling colleges to continue their uncontrolled increases tuition at integer multiples of inflation? This has been going on for DECADES and it needs to stop. Google “freakonomics cost of college” for an informative article and chart.
Amen Jean… I am going to school at the age of 46 because… there are few jobs to pay a LIVING wage with my previous skill set.
I am a veteran and a mother of three grown children. My marriages have not been good… military marriages are quite difficult (and some like my first, are abusive idiots). I have no retirement set aside, I had to cash in my retirement plan in 2009, so that I could live, then decided to complete my bachelor’s degree online… when suddenly appeared the post-9-11 GI Bill!
I already had almost $40,000 in student loan debt from completing my Associate’s degree! Now working on my Master’s degree, my GI Bill will run out in 2 semesters. I am up to $75K and have nearly 3 more years to complete my Master’s degree… so I’ll likely top the $150K level by the time I graduate… absolutely ludicrous.
Why would I put myself into so much debt?? I need a career which I can work well into my 80s or even into my 90s, because those rich SOBs are destroying Social Security AND Medicare… There will be nothing for me when it comes time to retire!
I will tell you all how to fix Social Security and Medicare… abolish the special retirement privileges for Congress, give them the exact same retirement as EVERYONE ELSE!! Then you will see the system fixed SO FAST your head will spin!!
There is NO way that you’ll recoup $150,000, especially not at 46.
There is absolutely no way an associate’s is worth $40,000, unless you’re in a high-demand industry (nursing, electrician, etc.).
With interest, that $150,000 will never be paid off. It would take an incredible starting salary and income for decades to pay off that kind of loan plus interest. Not a wise choice.
You should’ve gone to technical college or picked up a trade- plumbing, electrician, daycare worker.
You didn’t receive a free education from being military?
I will become a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine… so I plan to have my own clinic and make enough money to pay it back
My earlier comment answers what the military did for me. I also already went to technical school for Computer Support Technician… and no one would hire me. They said, “You don’t have any experience…” I stated, “The training was hands-on…” They still would not hire me. Strangely enough, most of the GUYS in my class were able to find a job… never mind that I did better than all of them in class… couldn’t possibly be gender discrimination, could it?
Oh yeah, then I asked, “How the heck am I supposed to get experience if you don’t hire me?” He said I should volunteer a year or two of my time to the Red Cross or some other organization… If I had a year or two that I could volunteer to the Red Cross, I wouldn’t have needed his crummy job!!
Some part of me feels that I don’t give a hoot if I ever pay back those student loans… If I can, I will… If I have to, I’ll move to France or some other place where I don’t have to bother. I’m really tired of the US being this big huge mess made by greedy ba$tard$…
OK – I’m a “boomer” but don’t throw rocks yet. We boomers are somewhat to blame, we stressed college to our kids but didn’t take the time to explain that the degree had to be in a major that had a job potential. The colleges are also to blame as they provided courses that sounded like fun but are useless in the marketplace. Then there is the loan system that gives money to students without measuring the potential for payback. The same bank would never give a loan to an unemployed person for a Corvette but thinks nothing of giving the same amount of money, or more to someone taking a college course with no potential for future earnings. Students – “don’t borrow more money than you can pay back within four years of graduation” i think Clark Howard said that on the radio.
College degrees are almost needed for any job except for McDonalds these days. Undergrads are just the beginning! The Graduate degree is what is needed to se tthem apart. We have 3 in college right now, and unfortunately we are middle class white people. No minority grants, nothing coming our way except alot of loans!!! We have one child who has gotten accepted at the ROTC, the military is not as easy as it used to be!!!
The costs for State tuition has gotten to be outrageous. A child in the United States in a middle class household should be able to go to college without going into debt and putting their family in debt at the same time. The Government must step in and make education affordable for all in state that want it. Public universities should not be so expensive and costs should not be rising the way they are. Why can children in other countries have the rights to go to the Universities? We need better systems to educate our youth and make them globally competitive. America is falling behind!!!
It’s time the country got out of the college education bracket.
Private loans or private scholarships or jobs should be how college gets paid for.
I’m tired of my tax dollars paying for millions of other people to attend school with grants and federal loans. I know way too many people who have sponged the system, gotten grants, and refused to work.
The student aid system is unfair, and punishes the middle class.
I had to fund my own education (private loans, jobs). Why not let everyone? If we all can’t get financial aid, no one should. Let’s get private loans and jobs. Some kids shouldn’t receive a free ride when hard working middle class students get nothing.
I beg to differ – here in CT plumbers, carpenters, electricians, HVAC technicians, and most everyone else who has a trade can find a well paying job. As I mentioned above parents push their children to go to college regardless of the cost and the marketability of their major.
In Connecticut, National Guard members can attend a state school tuition free.
I have $170,000… in PRIVATE student loans.
Variable interest.
Where’s the help for us middle class folks with PRIVATE loans?
I’m so sick of subsidized federal student loan recipients whine. They can pay the minimum amount for 20-25 years and have their loans discharged automatically. My private loans? My private loans will never go away… not through bankruptcy, not through decades of payments, nothing.
Where’s the help for private student loan recipients?
You think I’m an idiot as a 46 yr old single woman… who hasn’t been able to find a proper job since I moved to Illinois in 2008 (in order to help out a fellow veteran)… and so, I’ve gone on to get more education, so that I can do my own thing, and not have to go thru countless interviews, often with snot-nosed kids sitting in the interviewer’s chair… who won’t hire me!! And you have $170,000 in PRIVATE LOANS!! WTF!!
You couldn’t get any UNSUBSIDIZED loans?!? How much money do you/ your parents make to NOT BE ELIGIBLE for even unsubsidized…?? Why don’t you have a college fund??
I’m guessing we are ALL in a slightly MORE SIMILAR BOAT than you’d like to admit!!!
A large part of the rising costs of an education is the perks, not the education. When kids quit going, and parents quit sending their children to the “fanciest” school, the price of an education will come down.
If the government wouldn’t ship out American jobs, maybe there would be more jobs to go around. Also put higher tariffs on American made products like other countries do to America when their products come here. I have to take care of my aging mother and there is no additional help. I can’t work full-time because she needs 24/7 care. Where is the soul of America going by wanting to put additional interest on high interest already. There is no more compassion even Americans are arguing against each other as is a lot of these comments. The Republic for the people, by the people, will go by the way of the dinosaur if this draining of blood from turnips continue. Rich people like the representatives who wants this higher interest don’t realize or even care about us citizens anymore. The almighty dollar reigns! The love of money is the root of all evil. What trickles down eventually trickles back up. Some countries don’t even require tuition for its citizens. One day if this keeps up with the money grubbing,other countries will laugh at us while their economies will begin to flourish while we turn into the next Third World Economy. Our leaders whether Republican or Democrat has forgotten that or either don’t care. If a student is late on a payment, more interest and penalties. You just can’t win the way its going now.
I have been trying to get my private loans combined. In the process I was hoping to get a better interest rate. None of these companies is making this easy. I owe over 50K still and graduated 15 years ago. I feel like ill be in this position forever.