Student Loan Debt - NPR - What a Biden Admin may do (1 Viewer)

[wardorican]

Interesting interview. It's 11 minutes long.

What a Biden Administration May Do to Address Student Debt | The Takeaway | WNYC Studios

Collectively, Americans have over $1.6 trillion worth of student loan debt.

www.wnycstudios.org

One tidbit was that students with the most debt often have the best means to pay it. Those with the least debt are most likely to go into default. That's backwards from how I'd think of it, outside of Dr's and Lawyers.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

Did a little more digging and mine are apparently ineligible as they were under the FFELP program which is no longer in existence because it was deemed wasteful. The feds would guarantee private loans. Since 2010, the feds just loan out money directly -- that is the type of loan that can be forgiven. Fortunately, I was able to lock mine in at a fairly low interest rate of 3.25%.

 

[MT15]

By the time I graduated from college I had figured out that what college did was teach me how to learn, which is a lifelong skill. People would want to know specifics about what I learned in a certain class, and I always told them what I learned meant far less than the skill of how to learn.

In my experience, high school was more about rote learning, and less about critical thinking skills. I do recognize that having personal computers linked to the internet just drastically changes the types of skills needed in higher education. We used to have to memorize important theories and facts. (I cannot tell you how many times I was required to diagram out the Krebs cycle from memory during 4 years. Even in my first job I was expected to memorize the chemical synthesis of the drug we were manufacturing.) Worthless today since you can look things up in a second no matter where you are.

welcome back, Ayo! We have missed you!

 

[J-DONK]

I'm for wiping out all student debt, but something needs to be done about tuition increases. I don't remember the exact stat, but public state college tuition is up over 200% over the last 20 years. I don't pretend to know why this is happening. I've heard lack of state funding, increased useless administration positions, and the maximum student loan cap increase all listed as the reason why. Tuition increase rates is the real problem. Someone should be able to get a liberal arts degree from a public university, and not have to worry about how to pay off 100k in debt. The large tuition fees also overall hurts the economy. How many people in this country have decided against changing careers because of large student loan debt they would incur?

 

[Ayo]

I should clarify that my post above is not meant to ignore the tuition rates and costs of postsecondary education. That's something that also has to happen.

I don't know enough about that area to really comment, but I know that it's complex. There are middle management costs. There are these insane resources that draw students, but are also super expensive. University of Toronto has about twice the students that LSU does and doesn't have all the shiny things that LSU has in a lot of places. There is, relatively speaking, less mid management bloat.

It needs to happen, but that's going to take longer and there's no way that these things can happen concurrently.

 

[Goatman saint]

I for one am a huge fan of college education because it does, as was said, teaches kids how to learn, how to create and use knowledge. It also creates an educated base in society which I honestly feel is very important. Also, and this is always overlooked, is that it also is a great way to rip apart racism and open people up to new ideas, thinking, and cultures. I know when I went to college is really did destroy the racism I had when I was growing up due to being exposed and working with different cultures and such.
While we love to bash the liberal arts and such, as one of the guys at OSU was saying, a lot of employers highly value liberal arts as generally they are more well rounded and know how to work with and manage people.
But, we as a society need to decide. Is having a highly educated population valued? If so then get funding back to where it was for colleges. Funding was cut at the same time the electronics came about requiring massive upgrades in systems, technology, and staffing. I mean in 91-95 when I went to school we had 3 computer labs and the internet lab where you could go and learn the internet surfing with DOS commands. All that burden has been fairly or unfairly put onto students.
People will also want to bash athletics (I know I always have) and the gyms and such that are in colleges now, but a lot of those gyms are paid for by boosters. I was stunned at Oregon when I saw their gym for general student usage, and some of the stuff at OSU. But, Oregon was all given by the head of Nike who is an O grad, and the boosters and sponsors at OSU footed the bill for a lot of theirs. And in addition I was talking with one of the people involved and they kept hammering at how the US population is unhealthy and they wanted the opportunity for the students to be as healthy and learn healthy habits. Which I do see in my kids does work.
Anyway, what was my point? Kids should be encouraged to learn, to go to college and expand their minds. I find it highly valuable. I know others don’t. That’s fine, I always need someone to detail my car. (My comeback to my lifelong friend who believes college is bull. His kids have opened car detailing shops).

 

[zztop]

Out of curiosity I looked at the tuition fees of the college I attended. I want to say when I attended it was something around $1500-ish for a full semester. These days it starts at $1500 for just ONE credit hour

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

Tuition has exploded at an insane exponential rate. I went to Tulane for a year before transferring to Virginia -- tuition was about $18,000 a year back then. Now it's $56,800 a year. I'm not sure what justifies a 300% increase in twenty years.

 

[wardorican]

Out of curiosity I looked at the tuition fees of the college I attended. I want to say when I attended it was something around $1500-ish for a full semester. These days it starts at $1500 for just ONE credit hour

Same. Tuition and room and board for the year was around 12k at my university. I think Tuition alone was like 2000/semester.

tuition alone is now 16k/year, so 8k/semester.. It's stupid.

University of Florida is closer to $3000 per semester. Michigan is just under 8k/semester. Michigan State is aorund 7500/semester.

Now, I'm having a hard time finding UF's actual total budget, but the amount they get from the State is vastly more than Michigan Tech (and likely a lot more than any of the other Michigan unversities).

MTU gets just shy of $50M from the state of Michigan, UF got around $775M. Two years ago, I can find that University of Michigan got around $320 Million. Of course, UF has a 3.2 billion dollar budget.

 

[dtc]

The big problem with all of this is that cancelling/forgiving/paying the outstanding student debt is a pointless exercise and a waste of money if nothing is done to address the problem that created that debt.

The entire system of how college is paid for needs to be addressed, or we'll be right back where we are 10-20 years from now.

Sounds eerily familiar....... healthcare?

 

[dtc]

Admittedly I didn’t read the article nor listen to the interview. I agree that current student loan debt is a problem but I’m not sure how to fix it. Among the ideas I’d like is make it easier for borrowers to qualify for existing loan forgiveness programs and for them to be able to refinance loans at the prevailing interest rates if they have decent credit. I don’t see why someone’s paying 2-3 times the rate of what you could get on a mortgage for example. Blanket forgiveness I’m uneasy with because someone (taxpayers) wind up paying for it and it’s not fair to other people who already paid off their loans or never got loans to begin with.

I think as a country we need to take a step back and re examine the worth that traditional 4 yr university has considering how fast our society is changing. The problem I see is that many students are graduating with worthless degrees because they can’t get decent paying jobs using what they learned. Too many kids are in traditional college that don’t belong and too few are in technical schools. I also think college needs to be re vamped to be about half work study depending on what field you are in. There are soooo many things that you don’t learn about a profession until you are working in it. I’m in my late 30s and I have both a bachelors and masters in Accounting and my CPA. I funded most of my education with scholarships and went to affordable in state schools and lived at home. For my grad school and CPA tests, about 50% was reimbursed by my employer. I estimate I paid about $5-10k out of pocket for my education. For me, the decision to go to college was a slam dunk even if I had to take out loans for it since I now earn a 6 figure income. I think the debt load for some students is insane but it’s worse when you don’t have the higher income coming in to pay for it. I think the bigger problem is how do you rein in college costs and keep kids from getting useless degrees. Otherwise, we will be back at square one in 10-15 years

Well, we could go back to the idea of tax payers funding public schools for one and maybe even stop spending money on the biggest, fanciest, nicest grounds on earth and get back to actual education.

I learned just fine in 100 year old buildings and the same in 50s concrete prison looking facilities as I did in the most advanced and beautiful buildings on campus.

 

[EmBeeFiveOhFour]

LSU in state tuition (for an allegedly "public" university) is now roughly $12,000 per year. When I was there in the late 90's it was roughly $2,600 per year. Minimum wage in now $7.25, in the late 90's it was $5.15. The "I paid my way through college with a part time job, why can't these lazy kids do the same" crowd is clueless. Blaming teenagers for being coerced into entering into debts that can never be discharged because they want to be educated is misguided.

 

[wardorican]

LSU in state tuition (for an allegedly "public" university) is now roughly $12,000 per year. When I was there in the late 90's it was roughly $2,600 per year. Minimum wage in now $7.25, in the late 90's it was $5.15. The "I paid my way through college with a part time job, why can't these lazy kids do the same" crowd is clueless. Blaming teenagers for being coerced into entering into debts that can never be discharged because they want to be educated is misguided.

I'm just really happy I had a full ride scholarship and my son is getting the 75% paid tuition bright futures, along with another small scholarship. However, he's taking loans (luckily not much) and he's now working part time at Starbucks.

 

[Ayo]

two things to add briefly

first, we had a 22-year old poet speak on Inauguration Day. Not an engineer. Not an MBA. Not a medical doctor. I am NOT bashing those to any degree. But the arts have a place - they are the heart and soul of a society. Philosophy. Visual art. Culinary. Music. Literature. Etc. When we study ancient Western civilizations, we study arts and philosophy and ideas.

I get tired of having to legitimate the arts when the evidence of its importance is literally all around us.

Secondly, I saw a quip online that said - and I'm paraphrasing - "You know who didn't fall for Trump's propaganda? English majors"

 

[dtc]

two things to add briefly

first, we had a 22-year old poet speak on Inauguration Day. Not an engineer. Not an MBA. Not a medical doctor. I am NOT bashing those to any degree. But the arts have a place - they are the heart and soul of a society. Philosophy. Visual art. Culinary. Music. Literature. Etc. When we study ancient Western civilizations, we study arts and philosophy and ideas.

I get tired of having to legitimate the arts when the evidence of its importance is literally all around us.

Secondly, I saw a quip online that said - and I'm paraphrasing - "You know who didn't fall for Trump's propaganda? English majors"

Unfortunately, one of my very best friends is a UVA English major and non-practicing attorney with an incredible mind.

She, somehow, has become a Trump fan, but at least one who held her nose.

 

[brandon]

two things to add briefly

first, we had a 22-year old poet speak on Inauguration Day. Not an engineer. Not an MBA. Not a medical doctor. I am NOT bashing those to any degree. But the arts have a place - they are the heart and soul of a society. Philosophy. Visual art. Culinary. Music. Literature. Etc. When we study ancient Western civilizations, we study arts and philosophy and ideas.

I get tired of having to legitimate the arts when the evidence of its importance is literally all around us.

Secondly, I saw a quip online that said - and I'm paraphrasing - "You know who didn't fall for Trump's propaganda? English majors"

As an English major who is now a fine arts coordinator, I approve this message.

 

[B4YOU]

LSU in state tuition (for an allegedly "public" university) is now roughly $12,000 per year. When I was there in the late 90's it was roughly $2,600 per year. Minimum wage in now $7.25, in the late 90's it was $5.15. The "I paid my way through college with a part time job, why can't these lazy kids do the same" crowd is clueless. Blaming teenagers for being coerced into entering into debts that can never be discharged because they want to be educated is misguided.

By late 90s-00s, LSU tuition was completely covered by TOPs and fees were still minimal at about $800-1.2k iirc. If you qualified for TOPs Honors, you were paying about $500 to attend not counting books. Today, yearly tuition and fees is 12k and TOPs Honors pays $6200 annually and the lowest level pays $5400.

Past students with TOPs took loans for housing, food, books, misc expenses, etc. Today's students will come out with 25k in just tuition and fees after scholarships. I can easily see students coming out of LSU 75k in debt.

 

[coldseat]

two things to add briefly

first, we had a 22-year old poet speak on Inauguration Day. Not an engineer. Not an MBA. Not a medical doctor. I am NOT bashing those to any degree. But the arts have a place - they are the heart and soul of a society. Philosophy. Visual art. Culinary. Music. Literature. Etc. When we study ancient Western civilizations, we study arts and philosophy and ideas.

I get tired of having to legitimate the arts when the evidence of its importance is literally all around us.

Secondly, I saw a quip online that said - and I'm paraphrasing - "You know who didn't fall for Trump's propaganda? English majors"

As an English major who is now a fine arts coordinator, I approve this message.

As a professional engineer with 20+ years of experience, I also approve of this message.

I like to think of it as STEM being the foundation and engine of how our people and society are built and run. Arts and philosophy are what give us our reason and purpose for doing so and fill us with the wonder and imagination to dream so. When they harmoniously coexist and feed each other is when we reach the heights and beauty of our human endeavors and creations. When we put them in conflict with each other is when we start to lose our humanity and our society breaks down.

 

[Complex Kid]

LSU in state tuition (for an allegedly "public" university) is now roughly $12,000 per year. When I was there in the late 90's it was roughly $2,600 per year. Minimum wage in now $7.25, in the late 90's it was $5.15. The "I paid my way through college with a part time job, why can't these lazy kids do the same" crowd is clueless. Blaming teenagers for being coerced into entering into debts that can never be discharged because they want to be educated is misguided.

Looking at McNeese it's around $9,600 per year if you do 18 hours a semester. That doesn't include summer semesters.