Protest student loan cuts: The bad bill that is moving through Congress is now at the stage where the House has to reconcile its horrific proposed cuts with the Senate's proposed cuts. That means we will have time to shoot the whole thing down.
Here's what some students are doing in Texas to shine the light on this disaster. As the article notes:
You can do something about it: everything you need to take action is HERE at Student Aid Action.
Here's what some students are doing in Texas to shine the light on this disaster. As the article notes:
On Nov. 18, the House passed a bill that would reduce spending by $50 billion, with $14.3 billion of that coming out of higher education. The Senate bill, passed earlier last month, cuts college loan programs by $9 billion and overall spending by $35 billion. Senate and House members are negotiating a compromise and could approve a bill by the Christmas holidays.
You can do something about it: everything you need to take action is HERE at Student Aid Action.
posted by Hans Riemer at 10:15 AM
22 Comments:
wow. I really hope something is done about this. It is horrible the way the are cutting student loans and causeing more student debt!!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Every time the govt. increases aid to higher education, institutions of higher education repond by charging higher prices(i.e. tuition). They do this because the market for higher education is an oligopoly market, and supplies of education can get away with it.
If you truly wanted to lower the cost of higher education, you'd get the government out of the higher education business.
If people were forced to pay the full brunt of higher education, demand for higher education would drop. Colleges and Universties, however, would see their revenues plummet. Over time (probably 2-3 years) the cost of higher education would dramatically decrease.
I can't find the links right now, but the Wall Street Journal has fantastic articles on this subject from time to time.
In the meantime, this post does a lot to highlight RTV's true agenda. They're an orgainzation committed to expanding the power of government and raising your taxes.
you're right adam. just like in graduate level education programs, especially MBAs. i just finished mine and the company i work for paid for it. all i had to do was get b's and my tuition was paid for. if i had to pay for it myself, hell no i wouldn't have gone.
Another vote for Adam's post.
All you college students should do is just simply accept the fact there are no free rides in life: get your grants, and your student loans, be done with your bitching.
Student Debt? You think 'student debt' is bad? Try a 30 year mortgage. Look, I am not saying it's easy, but nothing in life is easy. Interest rates are lower today than in my day (23 years ago), back when President Carter led the nation into double-digit inflation, double-digit interest rates (can you even imagine 19%?) and double-digit unemployment. And don't get me started on the oppressive and confiscatory taxes!
Be thankful for the great economy you have now, and campaign to preserve it.
Study your asses off, and then pay your loans -- don't default!! You'll get the good jobs, and you will do well.
as for anonymous, not all companies will pay for everything. I still say that this is a big issue, and something should be done about it.
Students are graduating with too much debt already. Congress could be choosing to make loans affordable by making a the loan programs more efficient, cutting out the subsidy to private lenders. Instead it is choosing to cut the loan money available to students which will jack up their interest rates. And that is unacceptable. Call your senators today!
Adam says:
"If people were forced to pay the full brunt of higher education, demand for higher education would drop."
You bet it would, because only the richest students would be able to go to college! Even if costs froze today or went down somewhat, most people, including the middle class, still wouldn't be able to afford tuition.
Higher education is the best chance Americans have for social and economic mobility, and government funding of higher education makes that chance a viable possiblity for the people who need it most.
Raising the cost of borrowing for students is unfair and short-sighted. Why should students pay for the federal deficit? Cutting student aid will only harm our economy and our citizens, and it certainly won't reduce the cost of college!
It would help if people who deserve the free rides got them. Why should someone get a free ride to college who is dumber then dirt becuase they can throw a ball or run around a track? Give it to the kids who really do want to go to school to get an education and need the money. Not the kids who just want to go party.
Many people depend on the loans to get an higher education. Our government is pretty much saying that only kids that can afford college should be able to go. What kind of message is that to send out to the youth of our nation. "The Republicans are sending a message to the Democrats and its time for the Democrats to retaliate."
Ashley and Eugene said... Many people depend on the loans to get an higher education. Our government is pretty much saying that only kids that can afford college should be able to go.
Are you even aware of how ignorant your comment sounds? No one said the government was eliminating loans, just raising the interest on them. Anyone who qualified yesterday would qualify tomorrow; yes, over time the cost of the loan would go up, but student loans remain the BEST loan anyone can get, anywhere!
So in spite of historically low inflation rates, you still want an interest rate that is not affected by the cost of living, or the increased cost of education?
Why don't you just say it: You want the government to provide Ivy League education to everyone for free!
Wake up: the world doesn't work that way. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you will be on the road to a successful career and future.
Chris has a point. I think that this is kinda dividing our nation. Only rich people will be able to go to college, and that is like separating classes. When we grow up, it could be that they say, "oh, you didn't go to college, you must be really poor". It puts a prejudice upon those in the lower and middle classes.
and besides Adam Cahn, what's wrong with raising taxes? sharing is a good thing.
Have you folks ever taken a class in logic? Where do you conclude that raising the cost of the loan is equal to classism?
Yes, componded over time, the difference in the interest rate will add up to money.... 5, 10 years down the line. That will only afffect you if you seriously do not plan to MAKE money after college. And this economy has proven that is not a problem.
Say it. Come on, say it: you want it all for nothing.
Amazing. It's no wonder this nation is considered by some to be losing to students abroad.
Charlie, plenty of great students want to have a lower paying service career and give back: teaching, social work, community service, the ministry. Unless they are rich to begin with, these regular middle class folks are getting priced out of the student loan market with rate hikes like those that Congress proposes. Meanwhile, Sallie Mae, a private student lending corporations is feeding out of the same government trough and getting richer. I don't want it all for nothing, I just want the "all" to really be there. Student interests and not lender interests should be provided for.
For goodness sake, do any of you realize how the education market would be effected by a drop in government loans? Supply and Demand is a great thing, and if tomorrow the government pulls out college loans from the public do you think the THOUSANDS of universities across the nation would just close their doors to everyone except the rich? Of course not, they would do like anyone else in business would do when demand fluctuates, be more competitive and price your products according to the current level of demand vs. your total overhead. In other words, prices would go down, and depending on the institution they would drop like a rock.
The assumption that its evil to expect only those who can afford college can attend is mind boggling. How dare we expect people to be able to pay for services and products they purchase! Oh the shock and humanity of it all. Think about the effect of making it harder to get financing to go to school would do... you wouldn't have some kid get a government loan to be a pre-major for three years before graduating with some obscure degree then after leaving college default on the loan.
Those peers of ours who go through college thinking its a party or just to go because they need any degree to get a job, then don't pay their loans back are more to blame for the rise in the interest rate and the cost of education. The government needs to stop artificially increasing demand and colleges need to be held accountable for their outrageous pricing while every student who takes a loan needs to be held fully accountable by the government to pay them back.
Read this
The point:
"the relative ease of borrowing money to finance an education – and the low interest rates at which those funds are lent – may be contributing to a widening gap between affluent, middle class and poor students."
QUOTE:
In the meantime, this post does a lot to highlight RTV's true agenda. They're an orgainzation committed to expanding the power of government and raising your taxes.
/QUOTE
In this respect, Crock the Vote is just like S4
sean, apparently most people don't realize the simplicity of supply and demand. all they see is that the government is going to try to stamp on the underclass. i know the perfect solution, let's just make the united states communist. that way everyone in this country won't have to pay for anything but we can all luxuriate in our pathetic, useless, unambitious lives.
Quoting Chris:
=Charlie, plenty of great students want to have a lower paying service career and give back: teaching, social work, community service, the ministry. ==
I see, so you are suggesting that there has been a lack of students who have wanted to 'give back' in years past? Please...
The simple fact remains: student loans are and will always be the best bang for the buck, regardless of ones aspirations.
If you are smart enough, you'll get the scholarships (yes, yes: I agree too many scholarships are given to jocks who aren't held to the same academic standards as others). If not, you get whatever grants you can, get a job, and go to school. I held a 20 hr/wk job for 2 years, and a 40 hr/wk there after, carrying 15 credits/semester. My loan was paid off in about 5 years (after graduation), on my own salary.
Yes, boys and girls, it can be done, without baseless claims of classism. After classism, it's an easy step to socialism, and if you've ever studied recent world history, you know how well that has turned out for other nations.
If anyone wants a quick illustration on how bad athletic scholarships vs. academic standards have become, one needs to look no further than the #2 football team in the country, the Rose Bowl bound Texas Longhorns. UT has a 12% graduation rate among football players, a level far below any NCAA academic standard. Word is the NCAA is looking at ways to begin enforcing higher academic standards for athletics in the future, but i have no idea when that might take place.
I think what the Republicans are doing by cutting back on aid to college students is reprehensible. When I went to college back in the late 70's, college was still affordable. Students didn't graduate with gigantic loan indebtedness as they do today. The government priorities were completely different then - sad to say our national priorities have become so backwards. Today's college aged youth are the future of our country. How can we hope to compete with the likes of China and India and Japan if we put the cost of college out of the reach of most students???
I have 3 children who my wife and I will be putting thru college starting this fall. We will spend the majority of our life savings, and then the kids will still need to take on significant loan amounts.
The main advise I can offer you college students is to GET INVOLVED AND START VOTING IMMEDIATELY!! Encourage all your classmates to register and vote!! The Republicans have engineered this mess that you find yourselves in, and it will NEVER get better while they are in office.
Isn't it clear yet that a leadership that thinks nothing of wasting $1.4 Trillion on tax breaks for the rich, $400 Billion (to date) for a failed war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and $800 Billion for a terribly flawed Medicare Prescription Drug program that mostly benefits the pharmaceuticals, yet will not spend tens of billions to make college affordable, cares nothing at for you? Well, yes they do care, but only so far as to get you to enlist in the armed services to become cannon fodder for their war efforts.
And I am NOT a lifelong Democrat either, blindly venting against Republicans. I am a conservative who has voted Republican almost my entire adult life. But in the past 5 years I have been revolted by the direction our country has been taken in, and have refused to support Republicans any longer.
Get out and vote - and let your elected officials know in advance of November who you are voting for and why! Phone and e-mail them. They will eventually listen to you if enough of them are voted out of office, and know the reason why.
Post a Comment
<< Home