AlterNet: College Loan Slavery: Student Debt Is Getting Way Out of Hand

[marmar]

College Loan Slavery: Student Debt Is Getting Way Out of Hand

By Nan Mooney, AlterNet. Posted November 12, 2008.

The quest for a college degree is dumping millions of young people deep into a pit of debt from which many will never recover.



Raya Golden thought she was handling college in a responsible way. She didn't apply until she felt ready to dedicate herself to her studies. She spread her schooling across five years so she could work part-time throughout. She checked that her school, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, had a high post-graduate employment rate. But there were two things she hadn't counted on. The first was the $75,000 in nonsubsidized federal student loans she'd have to take out for tuition and those living expenses her part-time jobs selling hotdogs and making lattes couldn't cover. The second was that she'd graduate into a workforce teetering on the edge of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

"All of a sudden the work just dried up," says Golden, who got her degree in traditional illustration. "I've sent out probably a hundred resumes from L.A. to Canada, but I haven't had a single response. Experienced people are getting laid off, so why would anyone take a chance on a college grad?"

Shortly after graduating this past January, Golden moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles hoping there would be more work available, only to find hiring freezes at most of the production studios and animation houses. She has looked into fields ranging from children's book publishing to T-shirt design, but no one is hiring. For now, she's doing her best to get by working part-time as a barista at Starbucks and sleeping on a friend's couch.

Golden has taken a three-month hardship deference on her student loans but is well aware that the longer she pushes off payments, the higher the interest will climb. She had hoped to consolidate her loans, which are now at $112,000, but every place she called either no longer handles consolidations or turned down Golden because she was not employed full-time. Since there's no way Golden could possibly make her $1,400-a-month payments on a part-time barista's salary, she brokered a temporarily reduced payment of $650. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/106445/college_loan_slavery%3A_student_debt_is_getting_way_out_of_hand/

[ck4829]

1. Don't bail out the banks, give a bail out to the future of America!

[LiberalEsto]

2. I'm a parent paying my kids' loans

Every month my husband and I struggle to pay $768 for our daughters' student loans. One is unable to find a part-time job in the rural area where she's living and attending a community college. There's just no work there. The other is making barely enough to pay rent and buy food. We are unable to save anything for retirement or emergencies. I don't know where this is going to end.

[Greyhound]

3. "The only way to win is not to play" - W.O.P.E.R n/t