Paying For College
Both Sean-Paul at The Agonist and the Pensacola Beach Blog write about the proposed changes to the Federal student loan program.
The current system has the program administered by private banks, but almost totally guaranteed by the Federal government. This is another example of socializing the risk and privatizing the profits. To make it worse, even with these minimal risk conditions for the banks, they aren’t loaning money, so the Federal government is having to step in to provide that.
This is wasteful. Most of the work is done by colleges and universities in their financial aid offices, so there is no value added by having banks involved in any way. If banks want to make student loans, there is nothing stopping them, but there is no need for the government to provide the money and take the risks.
The government should return to the direct loan program where the risk and profit are both assigned to the government. The banks provide nothing to the program and increase its cost.
I think Sean-Paul is wrong to advocate for totally free education. The students need to have a stake in their own success. The program can certainly include incentives like lower rates or some forgiveness for achieving milestones, i.e. if you complete your freshman year the rate goes down, etc., but people don’t value what costs them nothing and we need to pay for this program.
Nothing is free. There is always a price, even if it isn’t obvious at the time. The cheap prices hailed by retailers usually involve sweatshops in another country and closed factories in this country, so even if you aren’t paying the price, someone is.
8 comments
The students need to have a stake in their own success.
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i’m with sean-paul, free education. taxes baby! we could start with fixing our little corporate income tax problem.
i paid for much of my college, tuition, books, living expenses, the whole nine yards, but even with the scholarships, the loans, and working i still skipped meals and went without heat or a/c to make ends meet. my grades would have been better and i would have learned more if i hadn’t been so stressed out and if the time spent working had been spent studying [or sleeping] instead.
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If you eliminate the waste of involving banks, and reward students for studying and getting the grades by reducing their loans, you will get better results that simply extending high school.
You and I suffered through the old system, I’m talking about a different approach that rewards effort, not the bank approach of “it’s a loan, pay it off or we’ll repossess your brain”.
Too many people will just attend college because it is something to do if it’s free. Make them put a little skin in the game. Give them the option of working it off in the Peace Corp or other government service programs as is done with med school loans.
It is a lot easier to get passed that way, than straight tax payer funding, and, only people who really want to go to college will apply.
meh.
some people won’t go to college, even if it’s free, just because that’s not their thing.
some people who would not otherwise have gone to college will go because it’s free and just be freeloaders.
some people who would not otherwise have gone to college will find out after they get there that there’s something worthwhile after all.
but there are people who would dearly love to go to college, people who do have talent and desire, but will never have the money. i’m willing to support a few freeloaders to help out those others, mostly because i’m willing to bet that free college is like free healthcare is like free pizza.
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If it’s structured properly, anyone who wants to go, can. The loans will be available, and just as important, opportunities for loan forgiveness will be there.
There needs to be incentives like the GI Bill where if graduates teach in underserved areas, or work in other, similar jobs, the loans are forgiven.
There is a program for medical school that already does that – work in specified rural or underserved areas and med schools loans are forgiven.
The Peace Corp offered grad school scholarships for years, and probably still do.
I taught in college, and I saw too many students who were only there because their parents were footing the bills and it was better than going to work. They used up resources that should have gone to kids from the inner city who really wanted an education.
>>If it’s structured properly, anyone who wants to go, can. The loans will be available, and just as important, opportunities for loan forgiveness will be there.<<
If the kids can get In, and then if they could get the full cost of the education as a loan, Yeah, then “anyone who wants to go, can.” If they can’t get the money, then what? I know a student right now who got grants and loans for all but $4500 of Temple’s tuition. She doesn’t have $4500. So she can’t go.
If my son could get In, then he could maybe go. But the majority of colleges have no supports. He needs something for living – which makes sense, because that is where most kids like him fall through the cracks. Peer pressure, roommates from hell, noise on the hall, lack of education about special needs as far as professors are concerned…just to name a few things….
If it were a government run and “free” entity, then colleges might be forced to comply with IDEA. Then it would be a whole different ball game.
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They had tuition free colleges in California and New York City for a long time, but that doesn’t cover room & board, books, or fees, so “free” is a relative term.
This is about financing, not about admissions. You still have to cross that hurdle, and it isn’t insignificant. Usually it means coming up with the cost of the SATs while you are still in high school, which most kids don’t think about.
Your choices are very limited because of the need for institutional recognition of your son’s situation. I don’t imagine there are all that many schools, public or private, that take it into consideration.
Honestly, if I had to do it again, I would have started at a community college, rather than wasting the big bucks at the expensive private university where I started my studies. That’s what I did when I got out of the service, and it was a much better plan that I could afford.
We have no community colleges anywhere near us, let alone near public transportation (what’s that? Buggies?!).
See, though, since my husband taught at a state university, he gets free tuition at that university, and free is cheaper thanpaying a community college. However, that’s if he can get IN…..
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I was speaking about people who have to borrow to go to school. They should save their money for the last two years, when you actually are taught by professors, and not teaching assistants, and the real specialization begins.
The problem with state colleges and universities is: will they have the resources to accept the people who want to attend, no matter how the tuition is paid. The answer in the Florida system is: NO. Qualified students who have the money lined up through the pre-paid program, or the Lottery-financed scholarship program are having a tough time getting into any state school, much less the specific school they assumed they had already qualified for. They have to attend a state school to get the money, so they are scrambling.
Things just suck, right now, and it won’t get better in the near future down here. I wish you luck in Pennsylvania.