lets have some real talk about student loans

[demtenjeep]

I am a teacher with a master's degree.

I was a non-trad student. We borrowed money so we didn't have to drive and miss more time with our girl so we took the loans, lived in married student housing.

Our vehicle crapped out so we had to get a different care.. The only way we could get a care that would get us to class and back was to buy a vehicle. Student loan paid for that as well.

20 years later, with two bachelors and a master . Seems like the bill is where it started even after paying on it for 20 years.


with our combined loans we pay over 800 a month. Just think how much that would add to the economy?

[fatrick]

1. OK ...

And your proposal is write off the debt?

[MissB]

5. God yes.

I think warren’s proposal is to tax the 75,000 richest Americans 2% per year.

It used to be that some rich Americans felt the need to give back to society. That’s fallen by the wayside. I think she’s onto something.

I paid my student loans off over many years. My kids don’t have loans - merit scholarships cover all or most of the costs - and I still feel like loan forgiveness will have a generational effect for not just millennials.

If millennials aren’t buying houses and are delaying marriage/kids, then eventually we will need to open the borders to bring in enough workers to take care of all the old folks.

[Cold War Spook]

12. If you are suggesting the government pay off student loans to help the economy,

wouldn't it help the economy more if people didn't pay any federal income tax on their first $100,000 of income? I would suggest low-interest loans for college and trade schools and reducing or canceling the loans for a list of different reasons such as graduating, going into the military after graduation and, I think this might be already being done, teaching in poor or rural areas.

[MissB]

17. I've noted before the increases that I've seen in the cost of a college education

The cost of college has increased to a level that a student is unable to borrow enough federal loans to cover the cost of college. It used to be that you could work full time during the summer and part time during the school year and cover the costs. (The cost of tuition at the state college I attended went from $1500/year to $1500/term by the time I graduated and now it’s $4500/term. Three terms per year, and note that is tuition alone.)

As my kids are still in college, I hang out on a parents page for college topics. It’s always sad when people my age realize that the costs have gone up dramatically since we attended college. Even if their kids are maybe eligible for merit, that pot of merit $ gets smaller each year. Kids borrow the maximum ($27,000 over the 4 years) and don’t even think about paying interest until after they graduate. Parents pull out Parents Plus loans or co-sign private loans for their kids to cover the gaps.

So kids are in debt, and that debt isn’t helping them. Paying off the federal loan amount up to $50k is a step in the right direction for this generation of students that have seen their college costs grow dramatically. Yeah, those that paid off their student loans don’t get the benefit. But if you’ve paid off your loans, you’re sitting in a pretty good position already. Poor kids can’t even get through the door because Pell grants only cover a little of the cost. There is so much that needs to be invested in higher education to make it fair for all income levels.

I see so many millennials just stuck with debt and not able to move forward with what we’d consider the normal course of American life.

One thing that isn’t being discussed is how public universities have seen declining dollars and now have to make up their costs by constantly raising tuition and fees. That means that kids have to borrow more. Offering low interest loans won’t control that (and I’m not certain that paying off loans will, but I’m hopeful that it will spark competition in terms of costs). Offering more loans just signals to colleges that they can raise their rates even more making the problem worse.

I’m quite opposed to military service in exchange for college funds; it means that economically disadvantaged citizens are fighting our wars. I see that as incredibly unfair. If you feel called to join the military then you should do so (general you, not you specifically).

I’m mostly fine with not forgiving loans until after graduation. Sometimes kids run out of funds before graduation and their folks aren’t able to borrow because they have crappy credit. So something has to be done to make sure kids can actually get to graduation, even if that means raising the maximum student loans amount. Which again will signal universities that they can raise rates.

Free college would be so much easier!

[MissB]

20. Yeah but you went to college back when it was cheap to do so.

It isn’t cheap anymore. The cost of our state university is north of $24k/year (room, board, fees, books).

Kids can’t make that much working part time. Most parents can’t save $100,000 per kid for college.

We are losing a generation of folks who should go to college but can’t afford to- and that’s not healthy for our country or our economy. Our nation should be invested in a well educated population.

Unless we want to be a 3rd world country.

[Rambling Man]

21. "1st world country"

in a "3rd world" planet. It's a race to the bottom. The only way the capitalists can compete in the long run is to achieve wage parity with south asia/china/etc.

Don't agree, but if they don't kill us with junk food, they'll at least impoverish us completely.

[radical noodle]

2. I agree

I'd rather see student loans reduced than to see free college for all. Interest rates need to be far lower once you start paying, too.

[True Dough]

3. Maybe even interest-free student loans

that would be a big step in itself.

[radical noodle]

7. It would

I think the rates are high because there's no collateral, but after students complete college and get a job, the rate should be lowered.

[sweetapogee]

4. the public school

where my partner teaches paid for about 80% maybe more, of the tuition for her MA.

At the time we were paying back on two loans for two of her (three) BA degrees. We had to put up the tuition for the grad degree up front. It took us about 16 years to pay off all of that at the same time paying a mortgage and cars.

So just when we get everything paid, the mortgage and all of the student loans and I also went to community college and earned another degree (BIO AS) which we paid for as I went. At that point one of our kids who has two student loans started to pay them back. We are paying one of those loans for her as long as she is saving her money for a house and thank goodness she has a degree that has reasonable earning potential (Medical Lab Scientist) plus she has a good job.

Both of our daughters student loans are held by the federal government, we send payment to fed-loan servicing center in Atlanta. I'm not sure but I think the federal government holds the vast amount of student loans these days. The best thing to do is send in a little extra money every month, that extra goes to the principal. Do the same with your mortgage. The mortgage on our current property was a 15 year note, by adding 100 to 150 dollars per month extra every month we paid it off 18 months early.

[radical noodle]

8. Many schools these days

don't want their teachers to have a Master's because they have to pay them more. My daughter's salary as a special ed teacher is so low (she's single which makes it worse) that she has no money left to pay extra on her student loan.

[sweetapogee]

9. sorry to hear that

Your daughter might find happiness in New Jersey. While the COL and especially housing is quite high, so is teachers pay. Once you get tenure you can rack up the grad credits and the NJEA and local bargaining unit will see to it that the tuition for an MA is paid for and your salary increases. 25 years then you can retire with a decent pension. Pay into a 403b plus SS and much of the stress and anxiety disappears.

[radical noodle]

14. That's good to know

Thanks. She's in Indiana so that would be a huge change, but I'll certainly tell her. She's a member of ISTA but they can only do so much in Indiana.

[rusty fender]

6. As I understand it, Warren is proposing that only

$50,000 of debt be forgiven, and only for those who make less than $250,000 per year. It will help student-loan holders, but it won’t erase everyone’s entire debts.

[Joe941]

10. Socialism is the answer my friend.

[Drahthaardogs]

11. It depends

Pay off student loans for undergrad at a public University??? Yes.

Pay off student loans to private colleges - Hell NO!

[NYMinute]

13. I think your loans should not be forgiven

but the interest on them reduced to the federal discount rate.

This way, more of your payment (and past payments) would pay down the principal and you'll be debt free sooner.

Forgiving the loans would be a slap in the face to those who lived frugally, delayed starting a family and held several jobs to become debt free.

[radical noodle]

15. That's like saying

free (or subsidized) childcare would be a slap in the face to those of us who paid our childcare ourselves. How do we ever move forward on anything if we worry those who didn't have those benefits previously?

I grant you, there is some unfairness to everything progressive when it comes to those who've suffered in the past.

[llmart]

16. So, what happens if someone is a perpetual college student?

Just throwing this out there. I've worked at both a public university and a public law school. I had students work for me if they were on a work/study program. I would get to know these students and their lives. Not the majority of them, but some of them had been going to post secondary schools for one degree or another for ten years. These types of students would say, "I just like going to school, reading and studying and the whole school experience." Or they would get a degree and then within a couple of months to a year decide that really wasn't the field they wanted to go into any longer, so they'd start on a new track. When do they start becoming a productive citizen of our country?

For my generation, if you got a student loan there were very specific things you were allowed to spend the money on. My students would spend a lot of their loan money on running to the very expensive coffee shop across the parking lot and buying expensive/fancy coffee drinks or they'd go out to dinner every night, etc. etc. As a full time employee I couldn't even afford to do that on a daily basis. They drove better and newer cars than I did.

There's one more issue that is equally important in the student loan discussion and that is why has a public university's tuition become so outrageous compared to what it used to be, say in 1995? I have two grown children who went to two different public universities, and both were very affordable, both in the early to late 1990's. I'm asking that question for others' input because I worked in administration at a public university and I saw how much money went to creating more and more upper administration positions that had never been there before and I considered unnecessary. Public universities now think hiring ex-corporate people is the way to go, thus corporatizing our universities.

[sweetapogee]

18. yes

and also what to do about students that attend a university for a year then drop out? I know an individual that went to Penn State for two semesters, racked up over 30K in student loans, then dropped out. He didn't do well for the year he was there and thus not much better off than a high school graduate as far as earning potential.

This is a public university and the reasons he left were not the fault of the college. His parents were in no condition to help him with payments. In hindsight he will admit that he had no business even going in the first place and admits that his parents tried to talk him out of it. To his credit he has the loans almost paid off. But even in community college a student can borrow 10s of 1000s of dollars in loans. From my experience as an adult student I see many students that don't really belong in even a community college.

I don't know the answer to this but I suspect that if there were to be a massive overhaul of the way in which we finance college and beyond then it will probably have some kind of entrance requirements of the academic sort and some kind of repayment requirement even if it is in-kind. Also adult students like myself that take college level classes for strictly personal enrichment might find it more difficult to enroll in such classes as those needing them for professional reasons might have priority.

Another issue not specific to the way this thread has developed has to do with the available funding pool for student loans. While painful and I know the pain well, the payment we make for our loans is then used to finance others that wish to gain a university degree. So there might be some reward for the pain of re-payment.