Posted on 05/29/2012 5:19:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Long term, I think we have to get the government completely out of the student loan business and encourage colleges to set up their own sets of private lenders.
Hillsdale College in Michigan does exactly that. They don't even allow their students to take out government loans.
There are a handful of other conservative colleges working on similar arrangements. In Hillsdale's case, their lenders actually offer better rates than government loans in some cases because their kids actually graduate with useful, marketable skills and the default rate is very low.
Still, there will be many headaches in liquidating the government loans. Some can be sold on the open market.
Others would have to be written off. As a condition for the write-offs, some of the students should be able to fill public service jobs which are otherwise hard to fill such as medical services in an rural or inner city area.
The colleges who made such loans should also be compelled to eat a portion of them. Many of them have rich endowments which could be assessed to help pay them back. Signing up students to give you an income stream and not providing an education which has a reasonable chance of allowing them pay it back should not be cost free.
They need to be cleaned off the books one way or the other. For many kids (and their parents), the debt is simply not sustainable.
Perusing the classified section this last weekend, jobs advertised included truck drivers (CDL), nurses, automotive technicians, electricians, plumbers, etc. All could be obtained thru technical schools, community colleges and apprenticeships.
But, these are the kind of jobs where you actually have to show up regularly and work .... you know, work.
First, people have to figure out their reasons for going to college in the first place. Many don’t have a clue. They have been told to go to college in order to get a good job. College has been so dumbed down that a degree doesn’t mean that much any more, and many kids go just to party and watch sports for several years.
The entire university system is going to disappear. When one can take courses from MIT online, why spend thousands of dollars to go to Podunk U. for a degree in communications? If people want a liberal arts education, the world is already at their fingertips online. This isn’t the Middle Ages any more where books and information are rare. People can educate themselves in a myriad of ways and find their calling in life without wasting years sitting in classrooms. As usual, government is getting in the way of progress. Government schools are to education what government solar companies are to energy production.
Schools like U of Florida are starting to cut STEM classes. To expensive, and lets be honest, not PC.
Hang in there. Be safe. Come home.....our nation has TONS of crummy citizens and problems (not to mention terrible political leadership) - BUT - you will still love coming home to a nation that is a far cry from where you are working and living now. Blessings.
Land of the Brave...........
“Schools like U of Florida are starting to cut STEM classes.”
Is it because of less demand?
Cost reasons. It cost a lot to have the labs and equipment to train an engineer. A liberal arts student only need the class room and teacher.
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