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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 6:09 am Post subject: Bank on Students |
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�The U.S. government invests in big banks by giving them a great deal on their interest rates,� freshman Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in an interview with Salon on Wednesday afternoon (the transcript of which is below). �We should make at least the same investment in our students.�
Warren was discussing the first bill she has introduced in the Senate, a plan released on Wednesday to address the crisis of outstanding student debt � which topped $1 trillion this year, with over 37 million Americans owing thousands of dollars in higher education costs that could take decades to pay back.
Student debt is now the second-highest form of debt in America � behind only mortgage debt � with the number of borrowers and the average balance increasing 70 percent since 2004. Research from the New York Federal Reserve Board indicates that this has begun to have an impact on the broader economy, with young people burdened by student debt more reluctant to take out auto or home loans. And without congressional action, this will get worse: on July 1, interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford student loans will double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. This will effectively raise costs for 8 million student borrowers by $1,000. |
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/08/elizabeth_warren_students_deserve_the_same_break_that_big_banks_get/
This sounds like a smart infrastructure investment to me. It's intended as a temporary measure, but it's too bad some way couldn't be found to make it long term and retroactive. A consumer economy does better when consumers have money to consume with.
The only downside I see is that colleges can just jack up tuition even more than they have been. Saw a graph somewhere showing tuition has been rising significantly faster than inflation.
A year or so ago there was a thread about forgiving student debt. Some poster argued along the lines that more people getting degrees devalued his degree. I suppose people with that kind of self-centered thinking will oppose Warren's bill. |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 5:06 am Post subject: |
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| Tuition has kept rising even at so-called public state universities as they have become more corporatized/privatized. UMass-Amherst, for example only gets 30% of its funding from the state. Here's Noam Chomski's analysis: http://www.chomsky.info/talks/20110406.htm |
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AlisonSun
Joined: 27 May 2013
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| Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 12:47 am Post subject: |
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| So far it there has been zero investment in students. The only thing that US graduates have been recently experiencing is total pressure from the side of the government. This is a pressure in a form of constantly increasing fees and tuition, interest and many other things highest authorities can make money on. So it seems to me that it is rather pointless to think about our government will be ready to invest in education some time very soon. And salon.com should already know it by now. Whatever promises are, we see no actions in reality. And soon no one will be able to feel protected from unexpected financial problems and I mean any problems. |
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