Post 1

by galohr

For this project, I have decided on the topic of economic security; more specifically, student loan debt. I firmly believe that education is a right, not a privilege, and that money should not be the only reason why an American citizen cannot attend college. I chose this topic because it is extremely relevant to my life. I will be graduating in the spring, and will soon have to pay off my student loans, as will many of my classmates here at Eastern. The more I thought about my student loans, the more I realized that I knew absolutely nothing about them. I started asking myself questions: Why are loans so high? Why is college so expensive? Where does the money go? Is there a difference between public and private universities? I hope, through this blog, to not only educate fellow students but also myself on the answers to these questions.

The goal of my blog is to give upcoming graduates the basic knowledge of student loans. I do not think that many students understand the severity of the student loan debt crisis. I believe that students should be aware of the situation they’re going to be thrown in to in the upcoming months. As for the messages I want to emphasize,  I want to address all of the questions in the above paragraph: why are loans so high…etc.

Student loan debt has been an increasing issue in this country, and as a result it has been widely reported in the news. In his article, David Luzer (2013) dives into the difference between student loans at public universities and private ones. He gives examples of real students who are $120,000 and $90,000 in debt. “How did this happen, why did colleges let these students make such dumb financial decisions?” he asks. In her article for the Huffington Post, Amanda Fairbanks (2011) describes in detail the lengths that some graduates have to go to to pay off their staggering debt. In her article for the Boston Globe, Gail Waterhouse (2013) states how most students are taking jobs unrelated to their field of study in order to start paying back their loans.

Perhaps one of the most newsworthy stories of student loan debt comes from one very important person: President Obama.  In August, President Obama announced a new plan to lower higher education costs. In his plan, Obama proposed a ratings system to assess how hard colleges are working to keep down costs. Federal aid would be based on the school’s ratings that would require approval from Congress. The plan calls on colleges to disburse student aid over the course of a semester, rather than as a lump sum at the start. Colleges would receive bonus money for the number of Pell Grant students who graduate. As for the ever-growing levels of student debt, the plan calls for expansion of a “Pay As You Earn” program that would cap loan repayments at 10% of income. The plan also says that colleges should offer a greater range of “affordable, high-quality options” that will generate competition with other colleges and drive down prices.

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