Although debts as high as $40,000 may seem manageable if one is able to secure high-paying employment after graduation, even in an ideal situation it takes a decade for the student to work that debt off. But what happens when that person's life takes an unexpected turn? Sickness, unemployment, any substantial change in life circumstance can usher the debtor into a financial apocalypse and personal despair.
Little help is to be expected on the horizon from Washington. Despite billions being doled out in bailouts, student debtors have been left holding the bag. Unlike homeowners who walk away from their homes, those who took on debt to improve themselves are stuck with the financial burden forever, hounded viciously even if they can't pay. The message of the system of higher education lending is simple—don't go to college if you need to borrow. It can ruin your life.
Not everyone, of course, considers stories of personal financial despair to be indicative of a larger problem. According to a recent article, "A Lifetime of Student Debt? Not Likely," by Robin Wilson, appearing in the May 2009 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, the voice of America's higher education industry, most people borrow amounts that they can manage and only a “vocal minority” has problems with the repayment of their loans. Wilson holds up as an example the case of a young woman who must live with her parents because the costs of her student loans prevent her from living on her own, writing that this is the normal, silent majority that is coping just fine.
Colleges, while providing some advice about the impact of the loans, ultimately can only advise. They can't prevent the student from borrowing.
Article comments
1 - Dorothy
Add to this the facts that any payments made to one's student loans are NOT applied to principal until ALL interest, fees and charges are paid, and often never applied to the principal at all, AND that the "advance payment option" is a savings account for the the LENDER (lenders collect interest while the Borrower's principal is never touched), and you have a prescription for ETERNAL DEBT that makes the old 'company store' look like a walk in the park.
DO NOT EVER TAKE OUT A STUDENT LOAN, folks. Run away, Forrest, RUN!
Thanks for your article.
2 - David Kwiecinski
J'cuse!
The Republicans are trying to co-opt this issue by calling for more restrictions on federal loan funds for , "for profit colleges". I, for one, will do my best to remind everyone that this problem, what I call, "the education penalty", started with the Republican controlled Congress during the Clinton admin. The central perpetrators of this assault on the middle class were initially spearheaded by Republican Sen. John Boehner of Ohio and Republican Sen. Buck McKeon of Ga. Make no mistake about this issue; this travesty is a Republican outcome, and the reason the Repubs. what to wash their hands of it is because word is getting out that it is their bad policy that has indeed led to a mountain of real dispair and suffering. How does the quote go? To paraphrase, When personal events, ie, bad, less than virtuous decisions collide with the social ethos, the person of character doesn't try to change history, but he/she changes one's bad action, one's lack of personal character.
3 - Townsend Harris
Colleges recruiting and retaining students have a conflict of interest *if* we expect them to accurately advise their students about the need to limit borrowing based upon placement after graduation.