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Subscribe to RSSAs the cost of tuition at most colleges continues to skyrocket, most students are left footing larger and larger student loan bills. Student loans account for more than a trillion dollars of debt in the U.S., an amount that has doubled in just the past five years.
So who drew the best cartoon about this crushing debt - Jeff Parker of Florida Today or David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Daily Star?
Jeff Parker / Florida Today
David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star
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I am constantly amazed with the student loan debate.
I guess we have come to the place in life where a LOAN is to be written off later as a gift?
If you borrow the money in "good faith" then accept the responsibility of paying it back or find another way to go to school like WORK!!!
It has and can be done!
Save for college, go into debt with student loans, work hard in school, get your Graduate Degree, slave away in the labor market and you still won't make as much as Snookie. I love this country!
It was and has been done when the cost of education wasn't going through the roof.
Do you honestly think a student working a job will be able to pay tuition with what they will make working part time and going to school full time? How much money do you think they'll make working while going to school full time? Do you think coming out of school with $100,000+ debt is going to influence kids to go to college? How is the cost of education going to enable America to compete globally?
With the price hikes, I see the opposite happening. I see tuition numbers going way down. No one wants to come out of college with that big of a burden. How are you supposed to support yourself with a several hundred dollar bill on top of supporting yourself? Can't happen given most students come out of college and can't even find employment. If they do find employment most are not able to make ends meet with what they are being compensated.
Most people coming out of college are not looking for a free handout or have it written off as a gift. I am betting they just want the cost of tuition to be more affordable. I can't blame people for wanting that.
You would be surprised how much the cost would come down if the govt. would GET OUT of the business of student loans all together. Take personal responsibility. No dickie,no shirtie. If you cant pay for it,dont get it. When the schools have a drop in enrollment because every idiot going to college has to actually pay for it. And not subsidized by the govt. The price will come down.
A big AMEN to that! In all areas of life, if we took responsibility for ourselves, we'd be better off!
You're right creedmoor, the government should go back to what it used to do and give more money to the public universities so tuitions are more in line with what they were 20+ years ago.
People need to wise up by first going for two years at a community college, then finish at a four year university. That's what I did and landed a good job with a Fortune 500 company, the same job landed by others who spend twice as much as I for the exact same degree.
I want houses to be more affordable and cars and medicine and groceries and utilities and vacations and i-phones and i-pads and big screen tv's and clothes and what ever else you can name. I want a free ride!
I think there are two big problems with student loans. #1 Students using the money for non school related or non essitial living cost. For example: going on spring break vacation. I stayed home and studied. #2 Getting the wrong degree. Only people who have money to begin with have the luxery of going to college for whatever they want for the rest of us we have to be practical and think of it as an investment. Ask yourself, what can I make money with once I graduate? For example: If you major in something like history or english it will be hard to find a stable job with good pay. Think about a hard science or math with a minor in something that interest you.
I did it. Worked hard in HS and didn't waste my money so that I had about $4-5k when I went to college. Worked about 30-35 a week at a job that earned $5.25 an hour plus tips (and you can bet I worked for my tips). And took a full class load of 17-18 hour per semester, plus winter and summer classes. I chose a respectable school that was about $15k a year and I graduated with $0 debt, with a little money to get started.
I choose a degree that allowed me to do something fun if I wanted, but a solid foundation to fall back on if the jobs weren't there in that field.
The problem is people don't plan ahead. If you can't pay off $100k in debt, pick a different field, pick a different school, pick a different place to live, save up BEFORE you go to school, OR take 4-7 years to complete your degree. I am not defending the high prices of education which are getting ridiculous, but nothing in life is free. Everything has a cost, and you HAVE to consider that and the sacrifice it will take before you take the risk.
And if you borrowed money and don't want to pay it back, that means you STOLE it. Don't make excuses to justify it. You STOLE it.
Hear hear!
I went to a state school for my professional degree and worked the entire time at mostly a minimum wage job to do so without loans. And this was at $3.50 an hour.
Then I worked every summer. And I saved it to pay rent, etc. And most of the time I was broke.
Sure, I didn't party constantly and eat out every meal and ski. But I didn't borrow for my degree.
PeteMT when the minimum wage was 3.50 an hour the cost public universities were much lower (inflation adjusted) than they are today. From when I went to a public college, 10 years ago, to today the cost of undergrad credits have gone up 2.5 times. They were rising faster than inflation when I went and we complained about it back then. It's just ridiculous right now and we're running into a potential future where America will no longer be on top because people cannot or will not pay to go to school leaving our populace even more dumb than it already is.
I am more than willing and able to pay my student loans. I signed up for it, I agreed to it. I graduated with my Bachelor's with $0 student loan debt. I currently have about $275,000 in student loans from dental school. I currently pay $1400 a month IN INTEREST on those loans, let alone another $2100 in principal. That's $42,000 a year just in student loans, more than many Americans make. I can certainly lower my monthly payment and have taken some steps to do so, but that typically involves extending the terms to the loan.
Here's my beef: About two years ago, the federal government took over the ENTIRE student loan market. Sure, there's private loans, but by far and away the vast majority of student loans are federally-backed stafford loans. My first three years of school? I could get federal-backed loans from the institution of my choice. There was competition for that "business." My last year of school? We're sorry, the federal government is taking over the student loan market and you must deal directly with them, no options.
Want to refinance to get a lower rate? Sorry, the government put a stop to that as well. Sure, you can "consolidate" but they will take an average of your current interest rates and round it up to the nearest 1/8th of a percent.
To me this smells of a government-backed monopoly. When I started school, I had the hopes and options to be able to refinance when I was done, with the institution of my choice. When I graduated, that option was gone and I'm shackled (not unlike the cartoon in the article) with the interest rate for this debt.
To the haters who will say, "Well that's what you signed up for." The game was changed while most of us were still in school. Competition in the market was lost. The government took it over. Options are gone. We are stuck.
...and THAT, my friend, is what happens when government takes over anything! Get ready for more of the same if Obama has his way!
You chose a stafford govt loan, so you chose to have those options. It is BS to expect people who don't have degrees to get the entire system which people with degrees barely get (maybe), but that's the system. Refinancing and all that is a crock, and you could still do it if you had CHOSEN the private loans. Just because the govt deal was better you took that deal, there are still a lot of private companies and private loans you could have taken.
The system is broken and a load, but don't go blaming the govt because they offered you a better deal with fewer options. If you think you could have done better with a completely free market with no restrictions, go ahead and go to a for profit school instead (become a dental hygienist for the same price it takes to get 2 engineering degrees and pay off those loans making half the salary).
I saved for, and then paid cash for, three four-year college educations--out of state--for my kids, knowing from the get-go that if they or I took out loans for them, the job market they would enter would not be sufficiently robust to assure them any chance of paying down/paying off those loans for years and years--stifling their savings potential, and restricting their housing opportunities. I was right. Each has a good job, but if they'd had loans to consider, they'd be hamstrung for years.
The price of higher, post-secondary, education in the country is not proportionate to the return on that investment in the early stages, given the current flat-line employment outlook.
Unrealistic for most parents in this country to pay for their kids schooling and their own retirement. People don't make enough for both those endeavors. The ones that do give the next generation such an incredible advantage that it is no wonder there is fear that the US is turning into a two class country.
Bottom line is that we can not compete on the world market, where governments do subsidize education, infrastructure and health care. Republicans do not care; they are shipping the jobs overseas anyway, where foreign governments subsidize health care and infrastructure, and they have many students fresh out of school with the latest technology.
Our politics have moved education to only something the rich can afford, again undermining our middle class.
Steve- how much more are YOU willing to pay to give free stuff to everyone else. Notice I didn't say how much more are you willing to make everyone else pay. Everyone wants a free ride, hell I would love to be able to whine and have my house, car, credit cards paid off. After all, there are people in this country who have more than me and it just isn't fair! Nothing comes free Steve, the sooner people realize that the sooner we will get back on the right track
Starts to look like the "Occupy' folk finally have a platform, "Free for me" Just as gross as the teabaggers, liberals, and ultra conservatives. It's all about "ME" No wonder our country's failed/dead/awash in bull@!$%#.......................
You will be surprised how much cheaper the loans will be when government gets rid of the private banks who make money acting as a middleman.
I hate to say this, but in my eyes this generation has had it far too easy compared to ours, when we had to work our butt off for little. Now this generation wants everything handed too them and I laugh at them, only because the real world is hard and you better be ready. This new generation is too soft in my book, god help us all if they fall short
What bull@!$%#. I'm sorry. I went to undergrad, my masters, and law school knowing I would be paying off my loans until I'm about 60, if I'm lucky. That's the price I paid for the education and job I have now. Unfortunately, there is a price on ambition and success. What a bunch of babies this country has turned into. Boo hoo, my loans are too much. Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you signed.
Under Obama's latest screwing of the taxpayers the students can make mini payments for a few years and then the balance of the loan is forgiven and the taxpayers get to bend over. Again.