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August 25, 2022 07:10 AM UTC
15 Comments
This is the image from a Kos article by annieli on the January 6 committee's investigation of Roger Stone. Committee members traveled to Denmark to view footage of an upcoming documentary on Stone, "A Storm Foretold".
And this is great news:
Biden plans to cancel $10,000 of student debt for those making less than $125,000 a year. Cue the complaints about the unfairness of it all from those making more. Pell grant recipients (yes, I was one) can get $20,000 of debt relief.
It will help me cancel about 25% of what I still owe from school 20-30 years ago. I've repaid the principal many times over; however, predatory loan practices by private lenders kept compounding interest.
There are millions of stories like mine; many of us over-50 debtors are going on strike.
Wouldn't a better approach have been (and still be) to make student loans interest free?
An even better plan would be to make college tuition much cheaper and wages much higher. That was the case when I was in college.
Yes, interest free would be great. A lot of students have loans that far exceed the original amount due to accumulated interest.
Another good idea, which I believe they do in Australia, is to make loan payback a percentage of your income after you have graduated.
Biden's proposed repayment plan will do that. Income-based capped at 5% of discretionary income with balance forgiveness after 10 years.
Don't know how much I agree with this depending on the scope. I get the logic of it, but if it applies to those seeking graduate-level degrees that seems unfair. If someone takes out $75K to get a Masters and ends up increasing their salary by 10% or less that's a really lousy ROI. It would also be unfair if a medical student with $300K in loans and a future salary of $300K can write off their debt after 10 years.
The ROI is a great reason to stop requiring post-secondary education for jobs that don’t really need it. There used to be a concept called training, where one was taught to do a particular job. The notion of requiring a degree, any degree, to be considered for almost any job is how we got into this mess.
I was curious … so went to the 2021-22 Salary Calculator for Denver Public Schools.
ROI of just over $5,000. 15 years to break even on the principle of the loan;
And about that medical student with $300,000 in loans and a future salary of $300K .. Biden's plan wouldn't allow them to write off ANY of their loans in the years they are making $300K.
There are a wide variety of suggestions for "better ways" — and the reality that most of them would require legislation to get them authorized. And who knows when we will have a Congress that will allow effective proposals, debate, compromise, and passage.
Financing higher education evolved into the current mess over decades. The Golden Rule of academics (those with the gold make the rules) has been corrupted by NOT adapting to have those contributing to have power based on their current contributions — some now have power even without making contributions and others make contributions but have not organized to develop a coherent power group. So there is a bizarro balance between multiple Federal programs, states, corporations, nonprofit corporations (private colleges), boards in control of public institutions, philanthropic organizations, individual givers, financial aid institutions (banks,etc.), and students (and their financial backers). Add in faculty, staff, and "allied organizations" like the sports industry and professional bodies of various subject matters. And I'm probably missing some and oversimplifying by generalization about others.
Trying to get a meaningful consensus in that "system" seems near impossible to me. Trying to orchestrate a deal on politicians and the various influencers on them might well take the combination of a major social need AND a powerful set of politicians, like previous breakthroughs.
Kwtree, your post is confusing. Your complaint about predatory practices of private lenders and happiness at Biden's relief are somewhat contradictory.
Biden's plan does not cover private loans. My disabled daughter still owes about $90k in private law school loans and this won't save her a nickel.
Do you have a mix of private and public loans?
Yes.
"Developer Brian Watson, former [GOP] state treasurer nominee, charged with securities fraud"
https://businessden.com/2022/08/25/denver-developer-brian-watson-charged-with-securities-fraud/
Welcome to my world….and that of most teachers. Colorado has the worst teacher pay discrepancies in the country. And on top of that, student debt growing forever. Teachers in math, science, and special education programs have additional loan forgiveness options- but those are a minority among classroom teachers.
This is in reply to Wong’s comment.
Knisley gets probation despite the judge’s misgivings:https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/belinda-knisley-mesa-county-plea-deal/73-5a67a628-1bf7-4a62-b0a7-f464c12796da
Naturally there's a lot of focus right now on debt forgiveness, and I think there are debatable pros and cons to what Biden just did. But could we look a little farther into the future, not just the short-term? Other nations have their own forms of what Americans would probably call socialized education. Whether it's free tuition or large subsidies, it's not hard to see some advantages.
A student's education doesn't depend as much on their family's ability to help with the costs, plus the family might not be as directly responsible for the student's expenses. There might still be debt, but it might not be as crippling as it can be here. As a modern society, you probably want more of your citizens to have higher education, and socialized higher ed removes or lessens some of the barriers. Obviously, there's a tax burden, and higher education isn't necessarily for everyone.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't see our higher education financial system as any sort of gold standard, though I won't criticize the general educational quality of our best institutions. How should it look 5-10-20 years down the road?
“Why James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas Is Probably Every Kind of F*cked“. from Josh Marshall at TPM.
Great description of how and why Project Veritas is screwed because they received Biden’s daughter’s diary.