Education should never be a commodity for sale. Of course student loans should be forgiven (students should never have had to incur them in the first place).
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue, Steven. The myriad of naysayers and trolls simply do not understand the concept of education.
I think this is the wrong issue at the worst possible time. I have a son in college who is working, staying at home (not always an option for many), and has taken advantage of our state's and the fed's grant programs, and oh, by the way, receives grants because his grades are good and he works hard. He's completing his sophomore year without debt at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Do we help? Sure. He lives at home, but we have offered to pay for him to stay on campus, but, as he says, why look a gift horse in the mouth. Rent free, clothes washed. Maybe not a good example for most, but he is focused and understands how its paid for - his education that is.
To the point. When our democracy is teetering on the edge and red states are trying to ensure that they win every election, even as a minority, and when women's rights are being toppled, what are the dems pushing - student loans. Sorry. I am sure there are many out there who got in over their heads and really would like a gift, but there are larger fish to fry here. What do you think the Trumplicans are going to do with this? They are easily going to beat the crap out of everyone who supports it. They will say, the left wants to make us hard working people pay for the elite's fancy educations (I don't necessarily believe that, but that's the message - can't you see it?). Doesn't make any difference whether it's right or wrong. It's going to be like CRT (which anyone who knows anything knows is a great big red herring) that has already scared enough suburbanites in Virginia to vote against public education because enough were convinced that CRT was a real thing. Student loans are more understandable than CRT and is a no-win for the dems.
I don't understand how smart dems like Senator Warren cannot see the forest for the trees. The first thing the dems need to do is win the mid-term elections by saving our democracy from the crazies, and then, only then, with a majority in both houses of Congress, then work on student debt. By the way, I am against paying off student debt willy-nilly. Somehow making it easier to pay back - why not? - but it should be paid, not paid off, and more controls put on how easy it is to build this kind of debt in the first place. I don't know the solutions. Much higher than my paygrade, but I liked some of your recommendations.
Steven, as a father with 2 daughters carrying student loan debt, one graduating this month with a Sports Admin degree and a job lined up and the other getting a master's at NYU in Urban Planning who quit her full-time time job because she failed two classes($6K each), I speak from personal knowledge.
"The average endowment’s size increased by 35 percent, leaving 19 percent of institutions with endowments worth more than $1 billion. But experts say few students benefited from that growth."
2) One earned an athletic scholarship ($200K over 4 years) and the other served in the Peace Corps (Federal govt pays for 50% of her Master's and a slew of other benefits, she served 27 months in a small village in Guatemala.) People have to put some skin in the game. People respect that.
3)Degrees do matter. If you get a Gender Studies degree, find a way to monetize it. Or plan on making a lot of coffee.
4) Any forgiveness must be tied to means testing. For a political party to advocate for financial relief for a group currently defined as enjoying privilege - mostly young, mostly white, mostly urban - could leave a bad taste in the very communities of color said party speaks of benefitting.
5) The Dem Conundrum: Different Taco; Same Salsa. Every problem we suffer is because we don't understand the motivating force behind the action. The action is good for you. You're just too dumb to understand. (Probably cuz we ain't college-edemacated!) Take any issue right now, literally any issue. The same answer: "Our messaging is bad, but once the rubes understand how good we are, they will line up behind us"
This student loan issue is just more of the same. Steven, even your language is somewhat inflammatory (which you acknowledged, good on you)
"While President Biden’s coming decision may be hastened by his hope that it will fulfill a campaign promise and motivate millions of reluctant voters to support Democrats, my innocent Twitter experiment suggests that there will be plenty of angry Republicans screaming “unfair” and turning up the attacks on Biden no matter what he decides."
Democrats are "reluctant" yet Republicans are "angry" Words matter, explanations matter, and ultimately votes matter. This November will be historic.
Our founding fathers believed for the Republic to survive, there must be an educated citizenry. Jefferson said, "I cannot live without books." Early schooling took place primarily in the Northeast; public education as we know it did not start until @ 100 years ago. Subjects were the 3 Rs and often, religion. Schools then as now were/are unequal. Indian children were "stolen" in attempts to make them English Americans. Blacks were still fighting segregation in the 1960s. Education in New Jersey is rated way ahead of , say, New Mexico.
Often, it is thought, give the schools more money, raise the amount per child. Not true. Yes, schools need to be well constructed, clean, organized with teaching material. (Pencils, paper, etc. were provided once. No big rush in September to stationary stores. What about families who need food, not pencils?) But what causes the best learning is the quality of teachers and the support of the community - the old wish that their children will do better than they.While the majority of teachers are dedicated, many are just hanging in there for pension or are quitting for better paying jobs. Teachers are very underpaid. For every current millionaire, there were teachers.Often though, college students unable to do well, switch to education where there are "easier" courses. My roommate in elementary ed, took a class that taught jumping rope. I took a course in using the blackboard. Fortunately, my degree is in LA , so I took courses in my major, including the 500 ones.
It is my belief that more attention should be given to grades 1-12. 42%, or less than half of
Americans have college degrees which means what they educationally know came from these grades. Listen to their English. I don't know why it is easier to speak incorrectly, but they do.
I or me, they or them, plus, these days, all interspersed with 4 letter words, even the President.
I know first hand of grocery store cashiers who, when asked to round off the total and give it to the current running charity, they cannot. Don't know how. Ask customer to just give a dollar instead. One fellow could not, when checking an item that was 2 for an amount, had to pull out his phone computer to divide by 2.
Gone seem the days of teaching history, civics, geography, values, making logical decisions from true facts. There are people who cannot even find their own state on a map, students who do not know the Civil War from WW II. Viet Nam what? Difference between FDR and Harding -who were they?
Yes, it would be nice to provide everyone with a free college education. It sounds great as a political promise. But if students need to take remedial work in order to understand freshman college courses, there is something wrong. What about those who do not fit into the college classification? There used to be shop with wood working, car fixing, solving plumbing problems. These people are necessary . Should disaster occur, fantasy speaking, they are the ones who would know what to do, not a proficient stock broker. So, if debts paid off, what about these people? Won't that be segregation of a different kind?
So.......encourage more intelligent people to become teachers with better pay and perks and require them to concentrate on academic studies, teach subjects that pertain to the humanities - the above, plus art, music, literature, politics, government, in the lower grades. My father, a history teacher, taught his students how to do their own income taxes some day when they worked. Since many college students are eating jello for meals, make meals free, also in the 1-12 grades where kids are shamed if have no money to pay for lunch. Lower interest rates on loans, ones that will never go up. Reward banks, credit unions who charge very little.
Lower college costs; they have increased above inflation by 28% and, since pandemic, more. Monetarily aid college grads ( without a mountain of red tape ) who can provide evidence of dire need and circumstances beyond their control.
Stop extolling the Harvard bunch above all others. LBJ said he always felt incompetent that he went to a less than prestigious Texas college, yet it was he who got passed Social Security, Medicare, and advanced race equality. Harry Truman never went to college, period. Yet, he is
Education should never be a commodity for sale. Of course student loans should be forgiven (students should never have had to incur them in the first place).
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue, Steven. The myriad of naysayers and trolls simply do not understand the concept of education.
I think this is the wrong issue at the worst possible time. I have a son in college who is working, staying at home (not always an option for many), and has taken advantage of our state's and the fed's grant programs, and oh, by the way, receives grants because his grades are good and he works hard. He's completing his sophomore year without debt at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Do we help? Sure. He lives at home, but we have offered to pay for him to stay on campus, but, as he says, why look a gift horse in the mouth. Rent free, clothes washed. Maybe not a good example for most, but he is focused and understands how its paid for - his education that is.
To the point. When our democracy is teetering on the edge and red states are trying to ensure that they win every election, even as a minority, and when women's rights are being toppled, what are the dems pushing - student loans. Sorry. I am sure there are many out there who got in over their heads and really would like a gift, but there are larger fish to fry here. What do you think the Trumplicans are going to do with this? They are easily going to beat the crap out of everyone who supports it. They will say, the left wants to make us hard working people pay for the elite's fancy educations (I don't necessarily believe that, but that's the message - can't you see it?). Doesn't make any difference whether it's right or wrong. It's going to be like CRT (which anyone who knows anything knows is a great big red herring) that has already scared enough suburbanites in Virginia to vote against public education because enough were convinced that CRT was a real thing. Student loans are more understandable than CRT and is a no-win for the dems.
I don't understand how smart dems like Senator Warren cannot see the forest for the trees. The first thing the dems need to do is win the mid-term elections by saving our democracy from the crazies, and then, only then, with a majority in both houses of Congress, then work on student debt. By the way, I am against paying off student debt willy-nilly. Somehow making it easier to pay back - why not? - but it should be paid, not paid off, and more controls put on how easy it is to build this kind of debt in the first place. I don't know the solutions. Much higher than my paygrade, but I liked some of your recommendations.
The Death of Democracy? The Death of rational discourse!
It’s such an easy fix. Make student loans subject to bankruptcy the same as billionaires.
Steven, as a father with 2 daughters carrying student loan debt, one graduating this month with a Sports Admin degree and a job lined up and the other getting a master's at NYU in Urban Planning who quit her full-time time job because she failed two classes($6K each), I speak from personal knowledge.
1) College costs too much, Whittier and Emmanuel cost over $60K/year and NYU is $90K. Let's start there. Here's a sub-title I found for this piece https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/02/18/college-endowments-boomed-fiscal-year-2021-study-shows
"The average endowment’s size increased by 35 percent, leaving 19 percent of institutions with endowments worth more than $1 billion. But experts say few students benefited from that growth."
2) One earned an athletic scholarship ($200K over 4 years) and the other served in the Peace Corps (Federal govt pays for 50% of her Master's and a slew of other benefits, she served 27 months in a small village in Guatemala.) People have to put some skin in the game. People respect that.
3)Degrees do matter. If you get a Gender Studies degree, find a way to monetize it. Or plan on making a lot of coffee.
4) Any forgiveness must be tied to means testing. For a political party to advocate for financial relief for a group currently defined as enjoying privilege - mostly young, mostly white, mostly urban - could leave a bad taste in the very communities of color said party speaks of benefitting.
5) The Dem Conundrum: Different Taco; Same Salsa. Every problem we suffer is because we don't understand the motivating force behind the action. The action is good for you. You're just too dumb to understand. (Probably cuz we ain't college-edemacated!) Take any issue right now, literally any issue. The same answer: "Our messaging is bad, but once the rubes understand how good we are, they will line up behind us"
This student loan issue is just more of the same. Steven, even your language is somewhat inflammatory (which you acknowledged, good on you)
"While President Biden’s coming decision may be hastened by his hope that it will fulfill a campaign promise and motivate millions of reluctant voters to support Democrats, my innocent Twitter experiment suggests that there will be plenty of angry Republicans screaming “unfair” and turning up the attacks on Biden no matter what he decides."
Democrats are "reluctant" yet Republicans are "angry" Words matter, explanations matter, and ultimately votes matter. This November will be historic.
Our founding fathers believed for the Republic to survive, there must be an educated citizenry. Jefferson said, "I cannot live without books." Early schooling took place primarily in the Northeast; public education as we know it did not start until @ 100 years ago. Subjects were the 3 Rs and often, religion. Schools then as now were/are unequal. Indian children were "stolen" in attempts to make them English Americans. Blacks were still fighting segregation in the 1960s. Education in New Jersey is rated way ahead of , say, New Mexico.
Often, it is thought, give the schools more money, raise the amount per child. Not true. Yes, schools need to be well constructed, clean, organized with teaching material. (Pencils, paper, etc. were provided once. No big rush in September to stationary stores. What about families who need food, not pencils?) But what causes the best learning is the quality of teachers and the support of the community - the old wish that their children will do better than they.While the majority of teachers are dedicated, many are just hanging in there for pension or are quitting for better paying jobs. Teachers are very underpaid. For every current millionaire, there were teachers.Often though, college students unable to do well, switch to education where there are "easier" courses. My roommate in elementary ed, took a class that taught jumping rope. I took a course in using the blackboard. Fortunately, my degree is in LA , so I took courses in my major, including the 500 ones.
It is my belief that more attention should be given to grades 1-12. 42%, or less than half of
Americans have college degrees which means what they educationally know came from these grades. Listen to their English. I don't know why it is easier to speak incorrectly, but they do.
I or me, they or them, plus, these days, all interspersed with 4 letter words, even the President.
I know first hand of grocery store cashiers who, when asked to round off the total and give it to the current running charity, they cannot. Don't know how. Ask customer to just give a dollar instead. One fellow could not, when checking an item that was 2 for an amount, had to pull out his phone computer to divide by 2.
Gone seem the days of teaching history, civics, geography, values, making logical decisions from true facts. There are people who cannot even find their own state on a map, students who do not know the Civil War from WW II. Viet Nam what? Difference between FDR and Harding -who were they?
Yes, it would be nice to provide everyone with a free college education. It sounds great as a political promise. But if students need to take remedial work in order to understand freshman college courses, there is something wrong. What about those who do not fit into the college classification? There used to be shop with wood working, car fixing, solving plumbing problems. These people are necessary . Should disaster occur, fantasy speaking, they are the ones who would know what to do, not a proficient stock broker. So, if debts paid off, what about these people? Won't that be segregation of a different kind?
So.......encourage more intelligent people to become teachers with better pay and perks and require them to concentrate on academic studies, teach subjects that pertain to the humanities - the above, plus art, music, literature, politics, government, in the lower grades. My father, a history teacher, taught his students how to do their own income taxes some day when they worked. Since many college students are eating jello for meals, make meals free, also in the 1-12 grades where kids are shamed if have no money to pay for lunch. Lower interest rates on loans, ones that will never go up. Reward banks, credit unions who charge very little.
Lower college costs; they have increased above inflation by 28% and, since pandemic, more. Monetarily aid college grads ( without a mountain of red tape ) who can provide evidence of dire need and circumstances beyond their control.
Stop extolling the Harvard bunch above all others. LBJ said he always felt incompetent that he went to a less than prestigious Texas college, yet it was he who got passed Social Security, Medicare, and advanced race equality. Harry Truman never went to college, period. Yet, he is
acclaimed our 5th best president ever.