STUDENT LOANS

Public affairs consultant Brad Chase let loose with a provocative posting in CNN’s Global Public Square blog. He postulates that young voters in the throes of high student loan debt are ready to desert the Obama camp after having been such a big help to him in 2008.  He proposes some specific changes to make to woo them back, including forgiveness steps and restoring bankruptcy law to pre-2005 when private student loans could be discharged in bankruptcy.  http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/30/have-the-youth-given-up-on-obama/

It’s about time that someone beside the Occupy groups started speaking out loudly for reform of the overly large student loan debt situation. Save Our Students, the student loan borrowers organization whose blog this is, is four square behind effecting larger and better forms of student loan forgiveness.  Please help us in this fight by joining S.O.S. free at http://lowerstudentloans.net

A Reuters blog reports results of a study, and of an interview of the studier, of the demographics of student loan borrowers and their debt burden. Although more borrowers continue to be of a younger age, incidence of borrowing by people over30 has jumped up in recent months.  Reason: Jobs shortage is driving many to make career changes requiring more schooling.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-studentdebt-middleage-idUSTRE7BQ0T620111227

This sad situation points up the need for more and better forgiveness programs for the growing army of young and old student loan borrowers to be able to work off those debts.  Please help us fight this fight.  http://lowerstudentloans.net

A blog of U.S. News comments on how a new report by the Department of Education shows that, in the overall increases in student loan balances, private student loans are growing faster. Yet, this is contrary to the blogger’s own advice for students to max out the federal loans first. http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2011/12/28/private-loan-borrowers-need-increased-protections

This blog of Save Our Students, a student borrowers’ organization, is not about how students should borrow, but about colleges doing things to keep their borrowings down, and for more and better ways for forgiveness of existing student loans. Of course, all these things matter, though. Please help S.O.S. now. http://lowerstudentloans.net

Representative Hansen Clarke (D-Mich) announced that a bill is coming from him for reducing overall student loan debt, but with responsible repayment. He did not give further details. http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/12/rep_hansen_clarke_putting_fini.html

Newt Gingrich suggests broad establishment of work colleges, a la College of the Ozarks (see our post long ago on it) as a practical way of reducing college costs. In that school students do the non-teaching work, coming out debt-free.  He is the first presidential candidate with a PhD in decades.  http://www.issues2000.org/2012/Newt_Gingrich_Education.htm

Save Our Students, the student loan borrowers organization whose blog this is, favors a similar approach, and would include arrangements for working off existing loans. Please help by joining now.  http://lowerstudentloans.net

Prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology is about to roll out M.I.T.x, offering free, interactive, worldwide education on the internet, with diplomas from a house brand, writes James Marchall Crotty in a Forbes blog. It will go beyond the free online lectures M.I.T. has offered for years.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2011/12/21/m-i-t-game-changer-free-online-education-for-all/

This development cannot help but be in the direction of pressure for lowering the high charges to students  and their parents in the public colleges. Save Our Students, the student loan borrowers organization whose blog this is, strongly favors lowered charges in the public colleges (so student loans do not have to be so high) and more and better forgiveness programs for student loan borrowers.  Please join us, free, in the fight.  http://lowerstudentloans.net We have taken no stand on charges by private colleges but are pleased with what M.I.T. will be doing.

In a posting in Inside Higher Education, Johann Neem makes the case for how colleges’ partnering with industry on student grants tends to result in emphasis on highly practical educations for fields where help is scarce, at the same time leaving in the dust students busy acquiring traditional, liberal educations. The latter may well not survive.  http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/12/20/essay-washington-college-grant-program-favors-vocational-over-liberal-education

In an open letter to President Obama, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman asks him to lead the nation into bringing about lower college costs. She emphasized reduced state financial support for their colleges as a culprit.  http://www.freep.com/article/20111216/NEWS06/111216024/University-of-Michigan-Mary-Sue-Coleman-Barack-Obama-funding-higher-education

Save Our Students, the student loan borrowers organization whose blog this is, heartily agrees.  For many moons we have advocated for the president to use his bully pulpit to campaign against sky high college costs that have resulted in overly high student loans. Please help us in this fight. Join S.O.S. free at  http://lowerstudentloans.net

Writing in the Latino blog cuentame, Iliana draws together depictions of how the chart flying around the internet in connection with the Occupy Wall Street activity overstated, or rather overshowed, the 2011 student loan debt at five times that of 2000. Seems that drawing a circle with a diameter five times longer did not produce a circle with five times the area. http://mycuentame.org/2011/12/14/the-exploding-student-loan-debt-chart/

The Sacramento Bee blog reports that the leader of the state senate, Darrell Steinberg will propose a new way to reduce overall costs in California’s public colleges.  His legislation would require free online books to be available for students in a number of commonly taken courses. http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/12/steinberg-open-source-texbook-bill-would-lower-student-costs.html Other details are in the San Francisco Chronicle’s blog, including possible effect on publishers.  http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2011/12/13/senator-wants-free-textbooks-for-college-students/

Although Save Our Students has no understanding of what would be all the other results from such an intrusion into the jungle of college textbooks, S.O.S. certainly favors bold moves to reduce charges to students and their parents in the public colleges that have been resulting in such large student loans.  http://lowerstudentloans.net