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Agree. That would solve most of the student debt problem right there.
Co-signed. I hate the attitude my generation has...always looking for a bail out for their poor decision making.
University should not be looked at as a place you go to for 4-5 years to explore various interests, party and live on someone else's dime. It should be a place of training and equipping yourself for a proper career.
Guaranteed Federal Student Loans especially GradPLUS is what got us into this mess to begin with. It has insulated higher education from the actual education market and helped cause astronomical tuition hikes.
Reforms I would think of.
1) allow people to discharge student loans as priority creditors in Bankruptcy
2) set caps on how much can be taken out in Federal Student loans.
3) IBR
4) Lower interest rates that don't compound until graduation.
These reforms would help significantly to reduce tuition. And grads who are already drowning .
I doubt they'll do number 1, but I think it should be allowed in some cases.
Number 2 is a bad idea because we don't know how much people can afford to pay back.
Number 3 is already available and is a good program. I'd like to see the number of years that one has to be in repayment go down to say 10 or 15 years instead of the 25 that it is currently. Nobody should still be paying for college that many years after graduation.
Number 4 is a really great idea. I think that student loan interest rates should be virtually nonexistent to begin with. Why make money off students borrowing for school? I read someplace that a good many students have as much as HALF of the money they owe in nothing but interest. For example, if a student finishes undergrad, is unemployed or underemployed, has to take a forbearance (interest accrues during these) and then finds a job... pays for a while, then goes back for another degree to move ahead in his her career, etc... over time, the interest starts to add up. I think it would be nice to end interest during forbearance. If you are on a debt burden forbearance, what in the hell sort of logic says that interest should be dumped onto the loan that it was determined you could not currently afford to repay? Crazy.
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Co-signed. I hate the attitude my generation has...always looking for a bail out for their poor decision making.
University should not be looked at as a place you go to for 4-5 years to explore various interests, party and live on someone else's dime. It should be a place of training and equipping yourself for a proper career.
And, yet... we bailed everyone out during the housing crisis.
Why hate on people who are trying to better themselves?
Most of the college students of the type you are describing are partying their way through college on their parents' dime, not on tons of student loans.
I'd say of the friends I have whose parents footed the bill while they got drunk, few had any loans. The ones that did had very little, say 10-15k TOTAL. That's not a huge loan and can be paid back with a decent job in a fairly short period of time.
The people I know who have larger loans tend to be people who paid their own way through school, went to graduate school, and/or didn't have family support but wanted to get an education.
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Student debt stifles economic growth. What are some ways a fiscally conservative Trump administration can tackle this problem, without putting tax payers on the hook through a complete bail out?
Tell colleges and universities if they cannot lower their tuition by at least 35%, then no more government grants or monies from government programs, etc... will be allowed to go to them.
I would say they should do away with FASFA. Restructure student loans. Expand the pay back period to 25 to 30 years. Establish a fixed rate and allow payment adjustments based off income. Offer tax paid tuition for State colleges and universities. Students still pay out of pocket for room & board, fees, books, and so forth. Take the loan payments as a paycheck withholding.
And, yet... we bailed everyone out during the housing crisis.
Why hate on people who are trying to better themselves?
Most of the college students of the type you are describing are partying their way through college on their parents' dime, not on tons of student loans.
I'd say of the friends I have whose parents footed the bill while they got drunk, few had any loans. The ones that did had very little, say 10-15k TOTAL. That's not a huge loan and can be paid back with a decent job in a fairly short period of time.
The people I know who have larger loans tend to be people who paid their own way through school, went to graduate school, and/or didn't have family support but wanted to get an education.
Great! Now why in the world can't those people pay back their loans if they majored in something in-demand and that commands a high return on investment?
Actually this would be my choice for how to fix this in a conservative legislation.
1. Set loan amounts allowed for certain degree programs.
2. Subsidize certain ones that we see the need for. (Doctors for example)
But heres the thing I would argue we should REALLY change. Start removing unnecessary programs from degrees. Call it a technical degree. So I know computer science. Remove the electives, science, math, etc. Focus on JUST the technical requirements. Call it a technical bachelors of science. Or a technical masters. etc. Basically it says you have taken all of the required technical courses, AND it gives you the degree. a 4 year program would be done in 2-3.
Yes employers will know that you are missing some of the fluff classes. they wont care if you can do your job.
The training requirements for doctors are insane as well. And because of that the cost of the degree is crazy. Make LPN's the preferred first line of doctor patient meetings. My local medical group has done this, and its working well. The LPN has the time to really discuss things, and focus on specific issues. The dr cost more, and had zero time to understand anything. Anything complex goes to her. IT WORKS. And surprisingly it works better.
LOTS of things like this could and should be done.
Great! Now why in the world can't those people pay back their loans if they majored in something in-demand and that commands a high return on investment?
Well, there's that whole "in-demand jobs" thing coupled with the whole "there was a huge recession under Bush post-housing crash that wiped out Boomer and older Gen Xer retirement accounts" thing.
If the Boomers retired on time and the early-retirement Gen X folks could have, we'd have jobs for everyone else.
So, really, the subprime housing situation screwed over the people who were in college back then and it's never fully recovered because the people who were working lost so much of their retirement money and/or got laid off and had to use their retirement money that they can possibly NEVER retire.
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