Posted on 08/12/2018 4:55:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Whether the nation’s $1.5 trillion student-debt problem represents a crisis is a matter of debate among policy makers and experts. But ask regular voters what they think and the answer seems pretty clear.
More than half of Republicans, 67% of Independents and 71% of Democrats agree that student debt is a crisis, according to a recent poll of 1,000 voters conducted by Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending, two consumer advocacy organizations.
“It’s pretty clear that regardless of political orientation, people see it not just as a problem, but as a crisis-level problem,” said Alexis Goldstein, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, a nonprofit organization advocating for stricter financial regulation.
That regular Americans are coming down on one side of that distinction is more important than simply semantics. Among wonks and academics it’s a question whether student debt constitutes a crisis for our nation and our economy broadly or simply a crisis for specific individuals or groups. Experts on different sides of that divide tend to have different approaches to solving our student loan problems.
But the poll released this week suggests the debate is going on separately from how Americans experience student debt, said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. And indeed, there are many reasons why voters may be feeling anxious over student debt.
Over the past several years, tuition went up while wages stayed stagnant, pushing families to spend more of their limited income on paying for college. And young people who graduated into the recession or post-recession economy have struggled to find jobs with salaries high enough to make their debt manageable.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I don’t think it’s a “crisis” until something blows up (literally or figuratively), and it hasn’t, yet.
Useless degrees and a glut of them, too. We only need so many sociology majors. Like... zero, actually.
Well, in my case, yes. The industry that I had been in since 1985 suddenly requires a four year degree. When the company that I worked for went teats up in 2009, no one in my industry would even entertain an application from someone without a college degree.
So I did what our illustrious O’Vomit said for us to do and I got my degree. And I went from making $105,000 a year base to $13.00 an hour. That finally changed, four months after President Trump took over. Now I’m back making serious money...and 29k in student loan debt.
Hillsdale College has a list of pre-approved lenders which they work with. All offer better rates than what they can get from the government near monopoly. This probably has something to do with the fact that most of their graduates get jobs and the default rate is negligible. Of course, Hillsdale doesn't offer Fluff Studies majors.
The State of North Dakota also makes it a point to keep state tuition affordable and underwrite loans for all colleges in their system. The state owned Bank of North Dakota also offers loan rates better than Fedzilla and limits what students can borrow, particularly with the few non marketable majors offered in their university system. Again, the default rates are negligible.
These are just two examples of educational finance models which could be used to replace the current broken system.
“Higher education is more corrupt than the FBI.”
Yes! You would make a bigger dent in what’s wrong with America if you simply strung up 90% of the college and university “professors” alive today. They have been having far more influence on the path our society has taken than the feckless turds we elect. In point of fact, “institutions of higher learning” have been the “breeding ground” for pretty much everything that’s wrong here today. Can you talk to your grown children today?
It must be brutal to have paid $250k to realized that there’s just not a huge demand for a person with an MBA in Transgender Zooalogical Psychology, with a minor in social justic for amphibians.
If student loans were offered at a reasonable interest rate most would be able to pay back in full, and default rate would be pretty low. Banks would still make $$, and young adults starting out could make a go of it.
A lot of kids who shouldn’t be in college, and others who pick silly majors have accelerated acedemia’s taste for filling their dorm rooms. Not only to fund their institutions, but to fill these kids heads with silly sh!t!!!
Education is the money laundering wing of the Democrat party.
And farm system for dem voters!!
You're welcome!
There is a lot of endowment money out there just sitting and gaining interest. Endowment money from universities who knowingly allowed students to pay for useless degrees, forced them to fund rock climbing walls and safe spaces they never used, and allowed ridiculously overpriced textbooks to be required for courses that didn’t even need textbooks.
Spot on! They must pay back what they owe ... just like every other debt. This is no different than any personal loan. Go after the deadbeats!
Stop paying College Presidents $1 Million + a year and reduce their staffs of “Administrators” making $250,000 - $350,000 per year. It is a Liberal con game. The big money people are Liberal friends of friends who are taking care of each other and expect the federal government to foot the bill when student debt can’t be repaid.
STOP lending money to Liberal Arts students.
We are not going to fuching bail anyone else out.
This is the innocuous article start trying to float these trial balloons.
No damn way.
They are going to try to demand bailout and forgiveness.
libs will push hard because most of tge debt is to women who pissed away money on largely useless majors who have no hope of repaying it back with any jobs they can get with those degrees.
I’m sure they are going to make college free - the day after I write the last check for my last kid.
we better not forgive anything. i paid my loans off after college, early. i made it a budget priority over fun and non-essential wants and desires.
the fuch if i am going to bail out basket weavers and lesbian gym teacher theorists who make coffee at starbucks.
I was visiting a friend at a major university. On our way to get a coffee we went by the local campus drug store. He pointed out the shelves devoted to candy - about 5’ of shelving. Then he pointed out the contraceptive products. An entire aisle. These kids are not eating candy. These kids are not spending a lot of time studying.
Universities need to stop cranking out Pol Sci and Psy grads.
Parents need to refuse to send their children to colleges who teach pointless subjects.
This includes Christian Colleges as well.
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