I’m left of center but I find this loan forgiveness stuff baffling.

States need to get their act together. No 17 year old is responsible for their family's financial situation. It is in everyone's interest that we have a well-educated population. And college needs to be accessible to every bright person - including 17 year olds from struggling families. High interest student and parent loans are an extraordinary burden on people. States need to have loan-free options for the smart kids.

That being said, taxpayers should not be on the hook for morons - the people taking out loans for a sociology degree at NYU or Pepperdine or Haverford and so on. And definitely not for the for-profit schools. Loan forgiveness for Georgia Tech is one thing; but loan forgiveness for Trump University or Bennington is a different matter. Focus on the public schools and make them affordable for every family with a bright kid. But there is no popular support for covering the loans of students that chose expensive private colleges or for-profit institutions. You can't ask people to pay for dumbass decisions.

Anonymous wrote:Ideally school loans would be without interest.
Instead borrowers would be required to 1 year per $10,000 borrowed in an underserved area. or for an organization.

Similiar to how organizations will pay tuition for employees who agree to work x amount of time for company.

Loans should be limited to certain fields, education, health care, STEAM.



End for-profit schools.
End needing a Bachelor's for every job.

A medical Assistant doesn't need a college degree. Return to teaching trades in high school. Every high school student should graduate with an entry-level career.


Maybe put a cap on how much can be borrowed.

Definitely cap tuition expenses.

My cousin lives in Iowa and one thing that their HS does is identify kids who aren't academically gifted and steer them toward the trades/vocational programs that are partnered with the school. We have the programs here, but there is a HUGE stigma attached to the students who choose that route over traditional classes. IMO, C and D average students should be required to take trade type classes instead of the PE/study hall options. If you can't maintain a B average, you don't need PE, you need to learn welding or how to become an electrician.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the thing that needs forgiven in terms of student loans is the interest.

It took me 8-10 years of working after graduation to be in a good financial place to make payments on mine that were more than the minimum monthly payment. I borrowed $27k over 4 years, so relatively low compared to many I know, but when all was said and done, I paid back $46k.

My sister has paid back her original student loan amount of $40k but still owes like $39k because of Interest.

Most people I know aren't averse to paying back what they borrowed. It's the interest that is crippling to them.

One of the few rational responses in this thread of bilge.

I don’t find it rational at all. Why should we forgive her interest and not that for someone’s mortgage or loan for healthcare expenses or a parent’s elder care? It’s all the responsibility of the person who signed the loan. It’s not the taxpayer’s.

Why should I pay for someone else's kid to go to school?

Because! Democracy! Or some feel good like that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expensive private college tuition should only be for rich people.

And if your local four year public college or university is too expensive for you, then starting your college career at a community college is a great option.

Whatever debate there needs to be about college costs should happen at the state and local level in terms of taxes to support higher education.

People need to start learning to be more realistic and pragmatic about their choices.

There is no rational reason for American taxpayers to pay 100% of your cost to a college that has tuition higher than median household income just because it was your dream.

Did you actually just say that private colleges should just be for rich people? Wow, you really have some great morals there, MAGA.

It's interesting b/c the very people who are rallying against this, are the ones who can afford to send their kids to elite colleges to retain THEIR wealth. They don't want others to achieve what they have. They like having haves and have nots.

I cannot believe that this is an argument being made when high quality public colleges and universities exist in every state in the country and there is a reason why they exist, which is to provide access to higher education to those that cannot afford private colleges and universities.

Also, although I did not realize that this needed to be said, private does not equal elite or higher quality. It just equals expensive and should be reserved for those foolish enough to part with their money.

It makes a lot of sense that people arguing the hardest for college debt forgiveness, particularly at the most expensive and worthless schools in the country, seem to have gotten the least out of college themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like he's dead set on rolling this back and rolling it bak quickly: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/26/trump-rollback-biden-student-debt-relief-00189841

good

She says, from the perch of her overpriced urban farmhouse in N. Arlington that her formerly poor, nerdy grad student husband who she had the brilliant foresight to see potential in paid for with his seven-figure “sales” job.

We paid back our loans. You can too.

Sure, back when college was nowhere near as expensive.

It's damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Employers want an undergraduate degree for admins these days, so you HAVE to get at least a BA/BS. Kids are graduating with $100K or more in debt thanks to predatory loans.

We're fortunate enough to be able to pay our daughter's tuition without having to get a loan. She's an Education major, so she won't make enough money in her chosen field (at least in the first decade or so) to be able to afford her own apartment or car - THAT's the problem.

You are free to go to community college for two years and then switch to an in state satellite campus program so that you can earn your degree while living home and saving money.

But nah, you feel like you're absolutely entitled to going to some ritzy private school and that you MUST have the 'college experience' where you're selling out $50k per year for room and board.

majority of people with loans ae going to community colleges and state schools. It;s a total myth that people are g going to ritzy schools for stupid degrees.

The dichotomy is that while this may be true in terms of pure numbers of people, their loan values are low. On the other hand, most of the financial benefit of these programs go to the people who go to expensive private schools.

It is a better public investment to take the money that is given to forgive your debt to Haverford for your BA in Sociology and your MSW MA from Columbia use it instead to provide more support to Community Colleges and public colleges and universities.

Anonymous wrote:Ideally school loans would be without interest.
Instead borrowers would be required to 1 year per $10,000 borrowed in an underserved area. or for an organization.

Similiar to how organizations will pay tuition for employees who agree to work x amount of time for company.

Loans should be limited to certain fields, education, health care, STEAM.



End for-profit schools.
End needing a Bachelor's for every job.

A medical Assistant doesn't need a college degree. Return to teaching trades in high school. Every high school student should graduate with an entry-level career.


Maybe put a cap on how much can be borrowed.

Definitely cap tuition expenses.

If they'd stop printing free hs diplomas for everyone, maybe there'd be fewer people thinking they're "qualified" to go to the bottom 1000+ schools that print $100K+ B.A. diplomas because they only actually care about how much student loan money you can qualify for. It's not like their job placement numbers are that high to justify admitting so many students. Perhaps the schools themselves should be directly loaning the money put instead of third partying the risk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gotta try to pay for the tax cuts for corporations and rich people.

Crazy right? People mad about helping out hard working Americans trying to make a better life for themselves and their kids in many cases pursuing education that has a direct impact on the community ie social work, education, nursing etc. No help for them, but happy to give billionaires more money.

The beneficiaries of the student loan programs are those on the academic industrial complex. They have raised tuition multiple times the rate of inflation, with virtually no emphasis on delivering efficiencies to students. The promise of a better life is often illusory. Note those in the academic complex vote virtually in one direction. Greatly limit the student loan programs and tuition will be reduced significantly. In fact from a policy perspective these loans are significantly flawed then why are they continuing to be issued. If the laws are flawed, don’t keep issuing them.

Anonymous wrote:Ideally school loans would be without interest.
Instead borrowers would be required to 1 year per $10,000 borrowed in an underserved area. or for an organization.

Similiar to how organizations will pay tuition for employees who agree to work x amount of time for company.

Loans should be limited to certain fields, education, health care, STEAM.



End for-profit schools.
End needing a Bachelor's for every job.

A medical Assistant doesn't need a college degree. Return to teaching trades in high school. Every high school student should graduate with an entry-level career.


Maybe put a cap on how much can be borrowed.

Definitely cap tuition expenses.

There are a lot of policy discussions we could be having on how to make higher education possible for all Americans. Unfortunately, it’s been turned into grievance football. Just like everything else Trump touches.

Good

Ideally school loans would be without interest.
Instead borrowers would be required to 1 year per $10,000 borrowed in an underserved area. or for an organization.

Similiar to how organizations will pay tuition for employees who agree to work x amount of time for company.

Loans should be limited to certain fields, education, health care, STEAM.



End for-profit schools.
End needing a Bachelor's for every job.

A medical Assistant doesn't need a college degree. Return to teaching trades in high school. Every high school student should graduate with an entry-level career.


Maybe put a cap on how much can be borrowed.

Definitely cap tuition expenses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Expensive private college tuition should only be for rich people.

And if your local four year public college or university is too expensive for you, then starting your college career at a community college is a great option.

Whatever debate there needs to be about college costs should happen at the state and local level in terms of taxes to support higher education.

People need to start learning to be more realistic and pragmatic about their choices.

There is no rational reason for American taxpayers to pay 100% of your cost to a college that has tuition higher than median household income just because it was your dream.

Did you actually just say that private colleges should just be for rich people? Wow, you really have some great morals there, MAGA.

It's interesting b/c the very people who are rallying against this, are the ones who can afford to send their kids to elite colleges to retain THEIR wealth. They don't want others to achieve what they have. They like having haves and have nots.

Bingo.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like he's dead set on rolling this back and rolling it bak quickly: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/26/trump-rollback-biden-student-debt-relief-00189841

.

The only people in favor of student loan forgiveness are the people who have the loans. I would be in favor of 100% loan forgiveness to teachers and medical professionals with the proviso that they must teach for ten years and medical professionals must practice in rural areas desperately in need of medical help for ten years.

The only way to ensure this would be to forgive the loans after they've done those 10 years. They should still make at least the minimum payments on the loan in the meantime.

That's almost the exact program that was in place. People worked for years at low-paying jobs, and made fairly high minimum payments on the assumption that they would be eligible for the public service forgiveness. And then, under Trump, they simply refused to repay them. Not a penny. And most of those people are still fighting to get the forgiveness they were promised. Only a small number actually got what they were promised.

7k under Trump
1 million under Biden.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the thing that needs forgiven in terms of student loans is the interest.

It took me 8-10 years of working after graduation to be in a good financial place to make payments on mine that were more than the minimum monthly payment. I borrowed $27k over 4 years, so relatively low compared to many I know, but when all was said and done, I paid back $46k.

My sister has paid back her original student loan amount of $40k but still owes like $39k because of Interest.

Most people I know aren't averse to paying back what they borrowed. It's the interest that is crippling to them.

One of the few rational responses in this thread of bilge.

I don’t find it rational at all. Why should we forgive her interest and not that for someone’s mortgage or loan for healthcare expenses or a parent’s elder care? It’s all the responsibility of the person who signed the loan. It’s not the taxpayer’s.

Why should I pay for someone else's kid to go to school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like he's dead set on rolling this back and rolling it bak quickly: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/26/trump-rollback-biden-student-debt-relief-00189841

good

She says, from the perch of her overpriced urban farmhouse in N. Arlington that her formerly poor, nerdy grad student husband who she had the brilliant foresight to see potential in paid for with his seven-figure “sales” job.

We paid back our loans. You can too.

You sound like my uncle who bought his (now valued at) $1.2mil house in 1989 for $276k.

He went to Harvard in 1968 when tuition was under $2500/year. It is now ~$80k/year to attend Harvard as an undergrad.

When did you graduate college?

Yes, college tuition has gone up far faster than inflation BECAUSE the govt keeps creating easy money and dropping it on educational institutons with no market feedback saying no more. Same with health care.

It's time for market forces to bring back sanity to the system. Many educational institutions are simply a diploma mill with a hedge fund behind them. Enough.