These States Will Take Your License for Not Paying Student Loans

[Purveyor]

by Natalie Kitroeff
11:49 AM EDT March 25, 2015

Legislators in two states are trying to repeal laws that let authorities revoke driver’s licenses or professional licenses when people fall severely behind on their student loan payments.

The Montana senate is considering a bill, which passed the state's house in March, that would repeal a statute that made it possible for student debtors to lose their occupational and driver’s licenses if they defaulted on their student loans—meaning they had not made payments in at least 270 days. Iowa legislators introduced a similar bill in February, but it stalled in the state senate this month because of a procedural obstacle.

The little-known laws exist in at least 22 states and have been on the books in some states since as far back as 1990. Advocates for repealing them say they have real consequences for people who cannot make a dent in their student debt.

“It’s the most inappropriate consequence, because you are taking away their ability to eventually pay [their loans] back,” says Moffie Funk, the Montana state representative who sponsored the bill. In Montana, where there is little public transportation to speak of, driving is the only way most people can get to the jobs they need to repay their debt, Funk says.

Since 2007, Montana has suspended the driver’s licenses of 92 people for defaulting on their student loans, according to John Barnes, a spokesman for the Montana attorney general’s office. By 2012, Iowa had suspended more than 900 licenses because the license holders could not repay their student debt, according to Geoffrey Greenwood, a spokesman at the Iowa attorney general’s office. Those suspensions were reversed two years ago but not because the policy changed. The Iowa College Student Aid Commission, which once collected federal loans in the state, reserved the suspensions and stopped revoking licenses in 2012, because the commission transferred its student loan portfolio to the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, a Wisconsin guaranty agency.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-25/these-states-will-take-your-license-for-not-paying-student-loans

[WDIM]

1. so basically if you cant afford your bills

They are going to take your licenses from you to make it even harder to pay your bills. Great idea.

Anyone who thinks the indentured servant is dead needs to think again. This system of debt is setup to ensure indentured servitude to corporate america.

[ND-Dem]

2. +1,000,0000. The system today is all about making the poor poorer, and punishing them

for being poor and backed into a corner by walling them up in a box.

[hunter]

3. Then, if you practice without a license, they can throw you in jail.

The prison industrial complex thanks you for your cooperation...

[world wide wally]

4. And then you can't vote without a drivers license, I assume

[KoKo]

5. Disgusting....All Education loans should be interest free and

Tech College tuition free for all who qualify. Who is going to run on that promise? Crickets...unless I missed something.