Jon thanks for all those comments! I need to take a minute and actually sit down and read about everything, but I appreciate hearing your thoughts.

quote:

we could subsidize college education rather than college loans.
...
magine making community colleges free or nearly so. Give subsidies for state schools to set up hybrid degree programs (mixing online and in person) on the stipulation that they cost no more than $x per year (some states have done this kind of thing).

And frankly subsidize trade schools too. We are probably overweight university and underweight trade schools as a culture.

Yep!!!

quote:

we could subsidize college education rather than college loans.
...
Imagine making community colleges free or nearly so. Give subsidies for state schools to set up hybrid degree programs (mixing online and in person) on the stipulation that they cost no more than $x per year (some states have done this kind of thing).

And frankly subsidize trade schools too. We are probably overweight university and underweight trade schools as a culture.

I support all of these ideas.

Well, Jon has encapsulated most of what I would have said.

I would point out that "free college" isn't very targeted either, especially free community college. That too is a big subsidy for the 20-25% of cc students who come from upper income backgrounds, i.e. a political act targeted at a group that regularly votes.

A community college education already has a NEGATIVE net price for any Pell recipient in just about every state ... well, except for certain blue states like Vermont that don't give a crap about higher education. That's because the maximum Pell grant well exceeds list price tuition for a cc education just about everywhere, so some of the Pell can go for living expenses. The problem with most "free college" programs is that they are "last dollar," meaning that if your Pell grant already covers tuition you get nothing from the state. The ONLY beneficiaries are middle and upper income people who get something at a lower price than before.

I said much the same thing about New York's free college program when it was rolled out. A political act that targets families making 80K to 125K with laser-like precision.

This State's Free College Plan Won't Actually Send More Kids to College

The empirical evidence since the program came out suggests that I was right.

Oh, and I'm convinced that some federal judge in Arkansas will likely block it. I suspect the administration is counting on that, and counting on it soon so that the block also becomes fodder for November.

Allowing discharge in bankruptcy is not the answer. Having a bankruptcy on your record will disqualify you from some federal jobs.

I believe there should be no interest until you graduate, which was how my loans worked.

As for the argument that people who didn’t go to college don’t get the bailout . . . When someone gets assistance because their house was flooded, I don’t think, “How come I don’t get some money.” I think, “I’m glad my house didn’t flood.”

quote:

Having a bankruptcy on your record will disqualify you from some federal jobs.

This is the sort of thing I was wondering about -- IOW, what are the drawbacks to declaring personal bankruptcy and how long do those drawback last?

Like, how likely is it that someone with bankruptcy in their history will be able to buy a car or a home? Or maybe the right thing to ask is, how long after bankruptcy does it take for those kinds of things to become possible?

Why I changed My Mind on Student Loan Forgiveness

Sue Dynarski in the NYT

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Why I changed My Mind on Student Loan Forgiveness

Sue Dynarski in the NYT

Thanks, that’s a thoughtful piece on the subject.

She does a great job outlining the main problems caused by rising tuition costs and, ultimately, by the federal guarantee itself.

She is even honest to admit that loan forgiveness does nothing to address these.


Why not propose the policies that would fix it? Rather than saying “let’s do it anyway because our current policies harmed these people”?

Won’t the policies just keep harming people next year?

Could exacerbate the problem as some may go deeper in debt, believing they will be forgiven eventually.