AlterNet: Stop Student Loan Sharking, Make College Free

[marmar]

Posted by LesLeopold at 7:20 pm
March 19, 2010

Stop Student Loan Sharking, Make College Free


For a fleeting moment I thought Congress was going to do something really wise: Get out of the student loan-sharking business. Recall that only a few days ago, the House and the Senate were going to fast-track the student loan reform bill by attaching it to the health care package. It was supposed to be a sure thing. What was I smoking?

Our current student loan system could have been invented by Tony Soprano. We taxpayers guarantee the loans and the government does most of the underwriting, rate setting and paperwork. Then private banks step in, impose their extra charges on needy students, and walk off with all the profits. Not only do the feds donate tax dollars to these banks (what else is new?), but the banks bribe college officials to send students their way. Bada Bing!
If the bill passed, eliminating Tony as middleman, the government could have saved from $37 to $87 billion dollars over the next decade for use in supporting more Pell grants for low-income students.

To be sure, Republicans, en masse, are opposed to eliminating the no-account middlemen because that would amount to a socialistic takeover of free-enterprise. But, they also are joined a group of Democrats including Senators Thomas R. Carper of Delaware, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida, Mark Warner of Virginia and Jim Webb of Virginia. The banks in question just happen to be employers in their states and campaign contributors as well. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/19/stop-student-loan-sharking-make-college-free/

[ixion]

1. If we were smart, education would be free

but we're not that bright, unfortunately. :(

[ananda]

2. Perhaps there is a power class..

.. that doesn't want too many smart, well educated,
independent thinking Amerians in this country?

[jmowreader]

5. We shouldn't be quite that smart

George W. Bush's education was free to him, and look at where it got him: he didn't learn enough about running a business when he went to Harvard Business School to keep himself from running three oil companies into the ground, so he was forced to trade on his father's name until he managed to find a job that suited him--running the Texas Rangers, who were at the time one of the worst teams in baseball probably thanks to his leadership.

College should cost something, but it shouldn't cost so much it creates a plutocracy.

[ihavenobias]

7. That point was addressed in the editorial.

1. Students won’t value what they don’t pay for.
Can’t you just see it? We let students in for free and they trash the place. If we’re not careful, we’ll get the ’60s all over again. But of course, this argument doesn’t apply to students from wealthy families who don’t have to pay a dime for college or run up any loans at all. Why the double standard?

More importantly, education is a necessity, not a privilege for the few. Our society always has recognized the need for free public education. As early as the 1600s, the New England colonies provided it. By the 20th century K-12 free public education became the norm. Nobody argued that only those who could pay for it should be allowed to go to high school. Times have changed a bit: Today people need a college degree or advanced vocational training if they’re going to do well in the world.

[jmowreader]

10. The model you want to look at is Berea College

Okay, it's a religious university. Shoot me. But what they do, that no one else seems to have figured out, is:

Step 1. Student applies for and receives any scholarships and grants he or she is able to get.
Step 2: Student presents the list of scholarships, grants and so on to the financial aid office. There's also a family contribution.
Step 3. The college subtracts the cost of attending Berea from the scholarship and grant total, and awards a "tuition scholarship" to make up the difference.

As for fees, room, board, meals, etc., they have additional financial aid available for that. Plus you get an on-campus job. The net result is when you graduate from Berea, you don't take debt with you.

How they do it is very simple: they've got the endowment from hell, and they're in a cheap place to do business--right off Interstate 75 in Kentucky.

The thing I do NOT like about that first snotty little paragraph is, it's historically been the rich kids who trashed the place.

[enlightenment]

6. Because teachers don't need to eat, right? nt

[ixion]

8. a silly statement, to be sure

drive by snark much? :eyes:

[enlightenment]

11. Not a silly statement - although it was snarky.

It's a serious thing to consider if someone is going to honestly suggest that higher education should be 'free'. If education is free, where does the funding come from to support the facilities and the educators?

I've seen a lot of people on DU express ideas about educators that have little or nothing to do with reality. There seems to be an equation of teaching with selfless sacrifice - and while many teachers do sacrifice, that's really not what it's all about. So it annoys me when I see comments like the one that prompted my response.

Thus the snark.

[a la izquierda]

13. as a soon to be college professor...

i'm curious as to how we'd get paid. many of us go through more school than doctors (and nearly all professors go through MUCH more school than lawyers). please don't pay us less than many of us (especially liberal arts profs) are already paid.
i'm heavily in debt paying for my education. making education "free" would enslave someone in the present.

[marmar]

9. So if education were free, you wouldn't need teachers?

:shrug:

[Donnachaidh]

3. The elites running this country would NEVER allow free college

They'd be sweating bullets that someone from the great unwashed would actually step up and take them and their ponzi schemes out.

It's a nice thought -- ain't going to happen.

[starroute]

4. Americans are divided while other countries act with common purpose

I don't know if Americans are temperamentally incapable of seeing that certain things (single-payer health care, free or low-cost education) will make this country stronger and more competitive internationally, or if they've just been sold a bill of goods by corporations which are eager to milk the nation for short-term profit.

But either way, countries which are prepared to put the common good above individual profit and act with a single purpose instead of being constantly set at cross-purposes are going to consistently beat the pants off us.

The US may be so powerful militarily right now not just because we've stumbled into a particularly stupid form of imperialism but because the military is the *only* remaining area of national policy which enjoys bipartisan support and at least a minimal willingness to make sacrifices. But that only makes it all the more obvious how lacking those two things are across the rest of the policy spectrum.

As long as Americans keep acting according to the standards of "I'm alright, Jack" and "why should I pay for my neighbor's problems," we're doomed.

[Swamp Rat]

12. Sallie Mae owns me.

I pay and pay, but the loans grow larger and larger over the years.

[aikoaiko]

14. In Georgia, public college tuition and some fees are FREE if you graduate HS with a 3.0 or > GPA

Its called the Hope Scholarship and its a great thing. You even get $300 for books per semester.

In fact, if you move to GA and pay your first year and get a 3.0 of better, the next 3 years are free.

It can be done.