tbh, still I am searching for a document that thoroughly describes issues, not symptoms.
That starts with analysis of student debts, associated majors, affiliated schools etc…I am hopeful to find a connection.
I am a firm believer that a child shouldn’t start adolescent life with an education debt as long as that child is capable for higher education.
Good questions, and the answers aren’t cut and dried. College costs are out of control, and I absolutely agree that things have to change. Forgiving loans without fixing the system makes no sense.
No matter what, the people who don’t get to benefit from any forgiveness or future changes get the short end of the stick. But the fact that those from the past won’t benefit is not a compelling reason not to fix the present and future.
FWIW, I am not in favor of loan forgiveness. I am not rabidly against it, but I would much prefer other methods of lessening the burden. I prefer ideas like lowering interest rates, forgiving the loan after a certain number of years of income driven repayment (and not taxing the amount forgiven), and any other ideas that might be sensible…short of blanket forgiveness. But I have seen the struggles to repay, and I have seen the statistics about what this crushing debt means for the future of many. So, I could live with some forgiveness IF the system is fixed.
Going forward, I would like to see free public college, which is something I used to be against. I worry because private colleges could become even less diverse (including socioeconomically), but I am hopeful that schools that can would continue to try to provide assistance to a variety of students who could not otherwise attend … but I am not sure how that would realistically pan out.
There is no easy answer, which I suspect is exactly why nothing has been done to make a real dent in the problem.
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Decades ago, state colleges were much closer to free when states had plenty of money to subsidize them. Then the crime wave (which peaked in 1991) and the political reaction to it (longer sentencing laws) consumed state budgets with enormous prison costs.
Both education and health care are people-intensive industries. Their cost issues are also somewhat interlinked. Education workers often get medical insurance benefits, which are a rising cost to their employers that is not visible in their paycheck deposits. Medical workers have to pay for their professional education before starting work, and their pay levels need to be high enough for them to have any chance of paying off their debt.
Isn’t that case for any corporate/small business that offers medical insurance through employment?
So to suggest somehow education debt has linkage doesn’t pass smell test.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting Drs/Nurses/Dentists should get debt forgiveness for a penny let alone 10/50K as their pay are high enough and industry provides most employment security one can hope for.
Their pay has to be high for them to be able to pay off their debt… but their high pay increases the cost of medical care for everyone.
Other businesses are likewise affected by increased medical insurance overhead. However, some of them are less people-intensive, or have been able to relocate some operations to other countries where medical costs are lower.
Wow, are you serious enough? People involved with human life directly should be paid highest, not the middleman insurance industry. One should read the manifest of insurance industry from 100 years back when it was invented and compare today’s model where profit over people seems only norm. Show me one Q in last 15+ years, when an healthcare insurance industry perform lower than previous Q.
No. People in society with degrees expect people to have a degree in order to get a decent job. And “decent” really just means respected in the eyes of the people with degrees. A carpenter may be frowned on in those same families, but it is a more than “decent” job in many, many families.
You mean have other people pay the debt. It’s not forgiven.
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Why would voluntarily undertaken debt, such as education loans, be forgiven before involuntarily assumed medical debt?
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Wonder how many carpenters do non-cash business only?
Has there been an update yet about loans?
Interesting point.
nothing but NPR article about Biden misleading comments about suggesting Ivys are responsible for higher student loan debt.
I’m kind of agnostic to canceling some part of student debt - but if it happens, I really hope they include some provisions for current/soon to be college students.
Maybe make more loans with interest deferred to graduation (or employment) and low rates available and stop taxing scholarships/grants for room & board to start with?
What about making schools more accountable for loans? If the schools were giving out the loans instead, then they would probably want to have less loans, maybe even lower their tuition instead.
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If schools had to manage loans it would cost them time and money. Tuition would cost more, not less, to cover the expense. Where would colleges get the money to offer loans?
I hope students aren’t borrowing because they assume loans will be forgiven.I think that would be a mistake.
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This makes my point. Schools wouldn’t want to manage loans so maybe instead, they would actually consider lowering tuition.
The feds can’t force schools to use their own money to create loan programs, so colleges aren’t going to be faced with a choice. Students should choose colleges based on what their families can afford without borrowing more than they federal student loans. They shouldn’t borrow more than they can afford and hope the loans will be forgiven. And they shouldn’t expect tuition prices to drop either. The prices listed on the college websites are what they’re going to be charged.
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Some of these costs aren’t made up and can’t be “lowered” easily. Colleges have fixed costs: student support is a big one, building maintenance and upkeep, technology maintenance and upkeep, admissions and financial aid administration, professors (those are actually low on the list and at some universities many of those teaching aren’t professors “at” the university but contracted teachers with professor qualifications, so that the contract may or may not be renewed, ie., not a fixed cost). You cannot easily cut into those without drastically reducing the quality of learning and academic results. Universities need to be funded, either through taxes or through tuition. For a long time, taxes were the primary driver, so that tuition was kept low. The explosion of public college tuition costs follows the budget cuts that followed the 2008 crisis. Tuition increses partially “made up” the loss in budget and everything that could be cut (subjects, professorships, class size caps…) was.
A big moneymaker for colleges isn’t actually tuition, but room&board. The combination of millenials being used to less spartan accomodations and universities seeing room&board as a moneymaker led to nicer, more expensive accomodations increasing costs for all non-commuters beyond what is “necessary”.
If states could reinstate 2001 per-student budget at public colleges in exchange for lowering tuition it may be a way forward.
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Just like a movie theater where popcorn and soda is money maker, not movie ticket.
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But it’s not affordable for many. In my state, the cheapest way would most likely be 2 years CC and then 2 years commuting to a in state college. That’s about $50,000. Even that isn’t affordable for many, and that’s assuming there is a college close enough to commute, and transportation is available.