[Bay Kid]

Maybe they should get a good deal for becoming something important, like a doctor.

[Gulfcoast]

I have a 20 year old who is currently a full time college student and also working full time hours. He will graduate early from college, debt free, with a combination of merit scholarships and college savings.

It can be done. Anyone who took out massive student loans and now acts all surprised that those loans have to be paid back is full of **it. And, no, my kid shouldn't have to pay for another "kid's" college degree.

[collie1228]

This whole issue is merely a way to further subsidize private colleges and their overpaid administrations. Whenever the government gets into the business of increasing financing of higher education, the colleges and universities increase their prices accordingly. Oh, and does anyone disagree that the vast majority of them are democrats?

[chet2020]

I lean left which puts me far left of most Villagers. I'm not a big fan of forgiving college loans. I do not understand the concept of paying $50K/year at a private college, and graduating with a major in English Lit and $200K in loans. FWIW, most of my liberal friends agree with me. Believe it or not, a lot of we libs are concerned about personal responsibility and the national debt. There is a noisy group of lefties that want full forgiveness of college loans, Biden at least reduced the damage to a $10K reduction, not full forgiveness. We'll see if this all flies. Support from the left will be softer than many think.

[Bay Kid]

Originally Posted by Gulfcoast

I have a 20 year old who is currently a full time college student and also working full time hours. He will graduate early from college, debt free, with a combination of merit scholarships and college savings.

It can be done. Anyone who took out massive student loans and now acts all surprised that those loans have to be paid back is full of **it. And, no, my kid shouldn't have to pay for another "kid's" college degree.

Exactly. Why should responsible, working people pay for the irresponsible, nonworking people? $10,000. forgiveness is $10,000. too much.

[Gulfcoast]

Originally Posted by Bay Kid

Exactly. Why should responsible, working people pay for the irresponsible, nonworking people? $10,000. forgiveness is $10,000. too much.

Most colleges have merit scholarships open to any qualifying student. If you have a certain GPA and test scores, you'll be eligible for a break in tuition and sometimes a full ride. Bright Futures in Florida is a great option at the Florida colleges, universities and trade schools, too. Bright Futures is paid for out of the proceeds from lottery sales. How great is that?

Also, some employers offer tuition assistance. I'm pretty sure Walmart is one of those places but I haven't checked into it. My husband completed his degree with tuition assistance from his employer.

Add in any savings the student has from summer jobs, PT jobs and even full time work, plus any savings that parents or grandparents might contribute (Florida prepaid is excellent from what I've heard).....If college is a high priority for you can find a way to go to college and graduate with little to no debt.

I don't understand this mentality from the some of these graduates who feel as though they can take on enormous debt and then unload it onto the taxpayers.

[Trayderjoe]

I put myself through college, working through college while also accumulating students loans for which I repaid my debt over a 10 year period. One of the things that I always recognized, and was actually reinforced in a meeting with then Dean of Students, was that I effectively entered into a business agreement whereby I received an education in return for an agreed upon sum of money. The university I attended did not guarantee that I would get a job when I graduated, although there was a graduate placement office that was available to help one's job search.

The government has become more involved in requiring college admissions based upon criteria other than scholastic aptitude. Additionally, the colleges have no "pain" for accepting students that are not academically competitive, or to eliminate curricula and degrees that do not offer real career pathways. Remember that colleges don't "own" the student loans and thus don't feel any negative impact from student loan default.

John Grisham wrote about this very scenario in his book, "The Rooster Bar" published in 2017. Here is a link to an excerpt of the book for those who may not have read it, or don't tend to read Grisham's books. Link to The Rooster Bar excerpt.

I believe that there needs to be introspection by several parties, be it the loan borrower, the universities, and not in the least, the government which helped to enable this quagmire. Yeah, I know, I won't hold my breath. I have a better chance finding "magic pixie dust" that will fix this problem.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Bay Kid

I believe the government took over student loans several years ago. Done to protect the people from those big bad banks?

That federal government keeps bailing out? Those big bad banks?

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by canyonblue

Actually the opposite is also true. While we didn't make enough to save for our kids college tuition, my income increased later in life so we were able to pay for two undergraduate degrees. Meanwhile we had a neighbor who didn't make as much but spent every dime on a lifestyle they couldn't afford. They even got divorced and he still lived at the house. Both of their kids had almost their entire tuition paid due to the single spouse income they claimed left them with no money for college. So is that responsible?

Lots of people figured out have game any system.

[Indy-Guy]

Our granddaughter is age 17 and a Junior in Highschool in central Indiana. A couple of months ago she joined the Indiana National Guard.

She will receive a $20,000 signup bonus to be paid out over her 6 year commitment. This coming summer she will attend 2 months of guard boot camp. As part of this program she also will receive her tuition and books paid for at any Indiana state college. Also while in school she will receive $900.00 a month plus what she will receive for attending guard meetings monthly plus 2 weeks summer camp. She has made all A's in high school and has tested out to be a medic while in the guard.

She will graduate with no student loans. She found this opportunity on her own and was totally her idea.

[Bay Kid]

Originally Posted by Indy-Guy

Our granddaughter is age 17 and a Junior in Highschool in central Indiana. A couple of months ago she joined the Indiana National Guard.

She will receive a $20,000 signup bonus to be paid out over her 6 year commitment. This coming summer she will attend 2 months of guard boot camp. As part of this program she also will receive her tuition and books paid for at any Indiana state college. Also while in school she will receive $900.00 a month plus what she will receive for attending guard meetings monthly plus 2 weeks summer camp. She has made all A's in high school and has tested out to be a medic while in the guard.

She will graduate with no student loans. She found this opportunity on her own and was totally her idea.

This is great. She is earning every bit of her education!

[billethkid]

Originally Posted by Indy-Guy

Our granddaughter is age 17 and a Junior in Highschool in central Indiana. A couple of months ago she joined the Indiana National Guard.

She will receive a $20,000 signup bonus to be paid out over her 6 year commitment. This coming summer she will attend 2 months of guard boot camp. As part of this program she also will receive her tuition and books paid for at any Indiana state college. Also while in school she will receive $900.00 a month plus what she will receive for attending guard meetings monthly plus 2 weeks summer camp. She has made all A's in high school and has tested out to be a medic while in the guard.

She will graduate with no student loans. She found this opportunity on her own and was totally her idea.

My grandson is finishing up the very same program.
Independent, committed and hard working (the essential ingredients).

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

I had a Stipend Grant which paid a portion of my costs at the U of Denver Graduate School of Librarianship and Information Management in 1983-1984. This Stipend required me to work in Nevada for a certain period of time as Nevada had no accredited library schools offering MAs.

I went to law school in 1986-1989 at the U of MN and that prevented me from working in Nevada and other stuff after 1989 also had that affect.

I fought for getting better information in libraries for survivors/victims of crimes using my 4 degrees (two BAs from the U of Nevada, Reno) and connections creating while getting these and the State of Nevada agency handling this Stipend Grant found that my work in other states helped the people of Nevada such that it counted for that time. I did have to give them a lot of documents and such. That ruling was around September of 2000.

There should be other ways to pay back student debt especially in times like these with the Corona Virus. Finally got my law school loans paid off in full last year.

Very interesting post!

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by npwalters

The student loans won't be "forgiven". The cost of that education will be shifted to the taxpayer. Many - actually most - of those taxpayers did not have the advantage of a college education or paid their own way.

When an individual gets increased education, BOTH they and the greater society will benefit.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy

The cost of college accelerated because the government loaned money without regard to repayment ability to students Colleges took advantage of the government funding their income source. However, that does not mean that everyone pays full tuition. Scholarships are given out by private colleges and public colleges. My son went to a high end private college at $50K per year, he was given a 50% scholarship, and I paid 80% of the rest with him taking out about 20% of the tuition. Similar scenario with my daughter. I was unemployed at the time he started, and I took 100% loans out for myself, same for my daughter as a public university. So thank god for parental loans which were given out without payment requirements.

My daughter worked for the VISTA program which paid minimum wage, but would contribute $20K towards paying off college loans, and that was about what she borrowed. There are post graduation programs to work which will assist paying off loans. My son paid off his at his job by renting very very cheaply. But they were brought up being responsible.

But the US is trending toward rewarding victimhood, so people play up that angle in the media. But counter point, having automated people out of a job, jobs are trending toward commodity requirements, so minimum wage. That's part of

Amazon.com

so, the world operates on most people think that the current scenario will continue indefinitely, and that never happens. Expect continued trends towards smaller numbers of educated jobs and fewer people employed above commodity / service level status, with ever more requirements on highest learning. Its a slow long term trend, but its real, and age discrimination is part of that. I was part of an age reduction program at work, I survived, but also don't care if I get let go.

so expect that the student loan repayment of existing loans, even if they cancelled the program today, to continue to be an ever growing issue, due to employment trends, and population trends as the primary reasons.

so not sure that prior posts are all accurate. . . many generalizations and assumptions

sportsguy

A large part of the increased cost of College started around 1975 with the upper managers in Academia demanding higher and higher salaries - they were taking their clue from Big Corporations where CEOs began making excessive salaries ( Jack Welsh of G.E. would be the "poster boy" for such excesses). The upper 20% in BOTH Colleges and Corporations were basically sucking the money upward from the middle class. The average US worker got zero pay raises (with respect to inflation) from 1975 until about 2000. Around 1975, GREED became "GOOD" at Colleges and Universities and the students had no power to control their own tuition increases. The rich got richer, the middle class dried up as a social force and got high tuition bills, and the poor got poorer!