Free Republic

I don't understand what they are thinking. I speak of the nearly 37 million Americans who owe roughly $1 trillion total in student-loan debt — most of it FEDERAL student-loan debt. And that's for loans taken out before the interest rate on new, federally subsidized student loans doubled a little over a week ago. The numbers are staggering. According to the informational nonprofit American Student Assistance, the average student-loan balance stands at around $24,300. A rough breakdown shows that: • 4.175 million borrowers owe more than $28,000. • 1.67 million borrowers owe more than $54,000. • 501,000 borrowers owe more...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—It is an arrangement that organized crime might envy - the lending of money with less concern about the ability to repay than is normally required for other loans, yet an almost absolute certainty that the debt will be repaid. Sounds too good to be true? Maybe, but it...

At this point readers are well aware of the numbers behind student loan debt. As the cost of a college degree has risen, total debt has soared; $1 trillion the latest number. $1 trillion has predictably led to a lot of hand wringing, but as University of Georgia economics professor Jeffrey Dorfman has soberly noted, the median student loan debt balance is a mere $13,000. In short, for most graduating college students the manageable number is worth the door-opening credential that is a college degree. As for those individuals with debt that well exceeds $13,000, Dorfman points out that many...

On the heels of Gov. Scott Walker signing into law the 2013-'15 state budget — and the provision for a statewide private-school voucher program — private schools are mobilizing to participate and meet a rapidly approaching set of deadlines. Details about how the program will work are still being finalized at the state level, but many private schools have launched marketing campaigns and scheduled information sessions to attract local families, readying them for a quick sign-up window in August. Meanwhile, some private schools are experiencing a new world of prickly community relations, a side effect of a controversial program that...

The Oregon state legislature unanimously approved a plan to provide free tuition to students while they attend community college and public university. In return, they'll pay back the state with a percentage of their incomes after graduation. Called "Pay it Forward, Pay it Back," the plan passed unanimously in Oregon's Senate on Monday and in the House the previous week. The state's Higher Education Coordinating Commission will next develop a pilot program and in 2015 lawmakers will decide whether to implement the program.

Classes in engineering and the sciences eat up a disproportionate portion of college resources. But schools that charge students a premium to study them might be making mistake. Imagine opening a restaurant menu and finding that every dish, from the steak frites to frisse salad, costs $14.99. It would seem odd, right? After all, buying and cooking a ribeye is more expensive than throwing some lettuce in a bowl. Charging the same for each wouldn't make sense. Yet, that's pretty much how most colleges price their majors. Undergrads pay the same flat rate per credit no matter what they study,...

In the summer heat of the election last year, Congress passed a one-year extension on keeping the interest rate for federally subsidized Stafford loans for college students at the artificially low rate of 3.4 percent — and the sand finally ran out on that temporary stopgap today, hiking the rate up to 6.8 percent. Republicans have been proposing to link students loan rates to the freer financial-market benchmarks instead of allowing Congress to arbitrarily determine what they deem to be an appropriate rate, while Democrats are looking to keep the interests rates as low as they in their infinite wisdom...

Unless Congress acts, interest rates for government subsidized student loans will double to 6.8% from 3.4% on July 1. In May, House Republicans passed a bill that would index rates on new loans to the rate on 10-year Treasurys (currently about 2.6%), plus 2.5 percentage points, with an 8.5% cap. But with little Democratic support in the Senate, that bill is dead in the water. Most Democrats want to lock the current 3.4% rate in place for two more years while Congress debates a "fairer" solution. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has even proposed letting students borrow directly from the government...

In the face of staunchly high unemployment and the prospect of long term job scarcity, one of the most common solutions is to increase your skill set or pick up a new one; to go back to school. Throughout most of the last half of the last century, we've had it hammered into us and into our children that we need to attend higher education in order to achieve more profitable employment. According to the 2000 Census, people with a high school diploma averaged a little less than two thousand dollars a month while people with a bachelor's earned almost...

An unsigned opinion piece in The Oklahoman favors allowing illegal immigrants to attend college in Oklahoma at in-state tuition rates. The editorial refers to them five times as 'undocumented' but that is just a euphemism for illegal, which is what they are. The editorial takes the position that children "whose parents brought them into the United States illegally shouldn't bear the legal or financial burden of that decision." Also from the editorial: "Fewer than 500 undocumented students attend Oklahoma's public colleges and universities. Not surprisingly, the school with the highest number of these students is Oklahoma City Community College, with...

With Congress and the Obama administration focused on Monday’s deadline to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling, it is an apt time to examine the larger consequences of America’s staggering student loan debt load. Even as mortgage, credit card and other consumer debt levels have decreased, today’s students carry unprecedented — and growing — debt burdens. With outstanding student loan debt in the first quarter of 2013 totaling a record $986 billion, the impact on individuals is disturbing. But add to that the fact that this debt load threatens the nation’s very ability to compete in the global economy,...

The housing market has been dealt a further setback, as it is revealed that student debt is stifling the ability of graduates to get mortgages. As the country’s total college debt passed the $1 trillion mark and overtook the total credit-card debt for the first time, the repercussions are being felt in the housing market, as first-time homebuyers are limited in their options when it comes to taking out mortgages.Recent college graduates carry an average debt load of more than $25,000, limiting their ability to qualify for mortgages even if they’re able to land a job in a market...

Americans are still talking about the recently deflated housing bubble, but there’s a new bubble in town. It’s the student loan bubble and when this one pops, it might dwarf the wreckage we’ve witnessed in the real-estate markets. In the latest news, the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors warned that soaring student-loan debt has “parallels to the housing crisis,” according to a May report in Bloomberg. As with housing, free-flowing cash will lead to widespread default. Of course, it’s easier to repossess a tract house than to take back a potentially worthless degree. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke dismissed these...

By the time Ken Ilgunas was wrapping up his last year of undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo in 2005, he had no idea what kind of debt hole he'd dug himself into. He had majored in the least marketable fields of study possible — English and History — and had zero job prospects after getting turned down for no fewer than 25 paid internships. "That was a wake-up call," he told Business Insider. "I had this huge $32,000 student debt and at the time I was pushing carts at Home Depot, making $8 an hour. I was just...

The student loan debate in Congress is bringing to the forefront the student loan crisis plaguing our nation, as well as the financial instability of academic institutions in the United States. Relative to the student loan crisis, the New York Federal Reserve concluded in its 2012 report that the obligations for student loans total approximately $1 trillion, or approximately $25,000 per graduate. The report notes that there are over 15 million borrowers under the age of 30, while the total number of borrowers is almost 39,000,000. The delinquency rates on the loans range between 10% to 20% for the various...

American colleges and universities are so flushed with cash that among the top ten schools in terms of the ratio between their endowment money and enrolled students are three schools most of us have never heard of. Colleges are businesses and will grab money from wherever they can. For decades they have worked hand in hand with Congress, (mostly Democrats) to raise tuition and fees knowing student loan money would keep coming from the US Treasury. College presidents have become experts in whining about not having enough money no matter how much they have. They NEVER lower tuitions and fees...

A year ago, I came across Aaron Clarey's "Worthless", a book that brings you down to earth about the value of a college degree in today's marketplace. I'd definitely recommend Aaron's book to parents & high school students. It will make you think about the huge investment that you are about to make by starting college. Young people today are finding a tough marketplace, i.e. the GDP is still weak. We can blame the slow economy for the tough jobs outlook. However, the changes are more profound and will continue until we finally can enjoy a recovery. As Thomas Friedman...

Congress has one month to reach an agreement before interest rates on new federally subsidized student loans double to 6.8 percent. For once, both Democrats and Republicans see the increase as a problem that needs to be solved. As expected, though, they have very different solutions, each with their own benefits and shortcomings. President Obama emphasizes the importance of college affordability, but a Fidelity Investments survey shows that new graduates are getting stuck with $32,000 in debt — a staggering sum even before interest costs are included. House Republicans want manageable interest rates, but they also want to trim the...

On Friday, President Obama will once more revive one of his ol’ campaign-favorite memes and remind college-age and younger voters of what it is exactly the Democrats can do for them — besides, you know, engendering a sluggish economy with a youth unemployment rate of sixteen percent, but I digress. On the campaign trail last summer, the president spoke to younger crowds about preventing the interest rate on federally subsidized Stafford loans from doubling to 6.8 percent as a way of boosting the economy, and Congress sent up a one-year extension of of the 3.4 percent rate for him to...

"If the Federal Reserve can float trillions of dollars to large financial institutions at low interest rates to grow the economy, surely they can float the Department of Education the money to fund our students, keep us competitive, and grow our middle class.” That is the logic behind the first piece of legislation from Harvard Law School professor-cum-Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, introduced in the Senate two weeks ago. The Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act seeks to extend to students the same loan interest rates allegedly offered to the country’s chief financial institutions. Among the problems with the bill? Said...