Posted on 04/26/2012 4:40:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
This week, President Barack Obama has been warning students that without his intervention, interest rates for a federal student loan program will double to 6.8 percent July 1.
In the process, he's been misquoting a Republican congresswoman. On Tuesday, he told students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that she has "very little tolerance for people who (say) they graduate with debt, because there's no reason for that."
And: "She said students who rack up student loan debt are just sitting on their butts, having opportunity 'dumped in your lap.'"
The audience booed.
The congresswoman in question is Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., a grandmother first elected to the House in 2004, when she was 61. The chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training and a former president of a community college, she is proud that she worked her way through college without borrowing a dime. It took her seven years. And here is what Foxx actually said on G. Gordon Liddy's talk show earlier this month:
"I have very little tolerance for people who tell me that they graduate with $200,000 of debt -- or even $80,000 of debt -- because there's no reason for that. We live in an opportunity society, and people are forgetting that. I remind folks all the time that the Declaration of Independence says 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.' You don't sit on your butt and have it dumped in your lap."
In other words, Foxx didn't say there was no reason for the average student loan burden of $25,000; she was saying that borrowing is a choice and that young people shouldn't take out huge student loans that they cannot repay.
I should think the president agrees, as his administration is working on a "Know Before You Owe" program to educate teens and parents about student loan debt.
The president told students that Congress lowered Stafford loan interest rates with the support of 77 House Republicans. (Politico has reported that then-Sen. Obama missed two votes on the 2007 College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which he now wants to extend, and he was not a co-sponsor.)
This year, Republicans balked at the $6 billion price tag. Democratic and GOP leaders now are haggling over how to pay for the subsidy -- with tax increases or spending cuts.
On Monday, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney plunked himself in the easy middle on this issue. He supported extending the 3.4 percent rate while exhorting Washington not to fund the subsidy with tax increases.
Passage appears inevitable. Interest rates are low, and college tuition has skyrocketed in recent decades; with Washington spending $3.8 trillion this year, who wants to lose votes over a (comparatively) lousy $6 billion?
Neal McCluskey of the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute sees a missed opportunity for the GOP to make the case to voters that easy loans entice students to take out bigger loans. "They're not making colleges more affordable," said McCluskey, "because colleges are happy to raise their prices to take that money."
There's a rift in America between voters who believe that Washington aid has driven up tuition and Americans who believe that high tuition demands more aid from Washington. It's a tuition trap that keeps luring more Americans because the middle way is to do both.
Of course, that's nothing new. Actually it fits perfectly with their current meme of
"UP WITH JOBS!!!!"
"DEATH TO CORPORATIONS!!!!"
Here’s how to pay for this; first, put colleges and universities on the Medicare model; we’ll only pay so much for this; no loan above that.
Second, eliminate ALL the endowments in the Federal budget, they’re all transfers of wealth to the rich anyway.
Third, yes, NPR and Planned Parenthood.
Fourth, if more money is needed, eliminate cabinet departments and RIF the employees.
We have access to several excellent community colleges that save students money and have teachers that earn a living in the real world.
I pulled into the law library parking lot which, when I was attending, was for student and patron parking. There was a sign there indicating that 24/7 that lot was now for “staff and faculty”. So “staff and faculty” gets to park in the premium parking and the students and alum who pay their salaries get to search far and wide for it. Backwards.
Why is it that no one mentions what causes the need for these huge student loans? That is the ridiculously high tuition fees that students pay to be taught by a professor who it turns out doesn’t do the the teaching because they are to busy monkeying around with something else while a teaching assistant does the teaching (Looks like fraud). Or books that cost a thousand dollars a semester and are basically worthless at the end of the semester because a new edition that only changes a few words or the chapter order has come out and is now required(more fraud). The list goes on. Knowledge is not that hard to come by but the certificate that says you have that knowledge does seem to cost way to much.—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————(This thing won’t let me put a paragraph in) But then again maybe the debt that these students and graduates find themselves in is their biggest lesson about putting their trust and faith in the hands of the strangers at the schools and the even stranger strangers in the government that loans them the money.
Dealing with this now as my oldest prepares to go to college next year to become a nurse. I was shocked when I found out how much just the local state university now costs: 22,000 a year if you live there--outrageous! She will be living at home, as I see no reason to pay extra to have your child thoroughly corrupted by the hedonistic college youth culture.
Exactly and there is nothing wrong with community colleges
Democrat can stretch the truth around the world and back again, and they keep stretching it until all of the idiots who vote for them believe it.
I work on a midwestern campus and will affirm your observations. I call them the parking gestapo as they will get you if you fail to get a hang tag.
As a faculty member, I do have to pay for a parking permit in the order of $220 per year. Notice I said permit as there is absolutely no guarantee that I will find a parking spot. Those wishing for exclusive access to a particular spot must pay in the neighborhood of $1,500 per year.
To top it off they try to cram as many spots in as humanly possible for all of the Yugos and Prius. My Nissan Titan pickup looks like a sardine if I park within the lines and then I have to deal with the potential for door dings....
Sheesh
MFO
I have a relative who is a college instructor. She complains ceaselessly about her students, their attitudes, their incompetence. Several times, I have asked her, “...aren’t the students like YOUR CUSTOMERS?” and that they can choose whether or not to take her class.
what a loser
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