Free Republic

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — While making the pitch on his new college affordability plan for a second time, President Obama was interrupted by pro-Bradley Manning hecklers at Henninger High School in Syracuse, N.Y., Thursday evening. Two women holding a giant “Free Bradley Manning” sign yelled at the president in the middle of his speech. It was unclear what the women were saying, but they were escorted out of the gymnasium to applause from the crowd. When the women started shouting, the president said, “I hear you,” and tried to calm down the crowd. After the two women left, Obama called the...

NEW YORK (MainStreet)—The government is providing assistance for student debtors in creating default avoidance plans for them. But what about the parents who borrowed money through the PLUS program? What options have they? Not many it seems.

On Martin Bashir’s Thursday MSNBC program, New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel said that no students should have to pay for college. Rangel was reacting to President Barack Obama’s higher education proposal rollout that would put in place requirements for students and institutions to receive federal financial aid assistance. Rangel explained to fill-in host Joy Reid that he support Obama’s plan, particularly the accountability components. “I think it’s exciting, and certainly it’s going to bring in accountability,” he said. “You know, we have universities scattered all over the world. Sometimes you think that tuition means nothing to a large group...

President Obama unveiled a new plan Thursday designed to shame colleges and universities over rapidly escalating tuition costs, warning the nation is facing "a crisis in terms of college affordability and student debt." At a series of events across New York state, the president touted his order to the Department of Education to create a new ranking system that grades universities on their value to students, providing applicants with a clearer idea of which schools give students the best bang for their buck. He also proposed tying federal aid to the rating system, arguing that the federal government should not...

President Barack Obama on Thursday will unveil a broad plan to lower the cost of college, the highlight of which involves a new ratings system that ties the federal government's allocation of financial aid to the ratings system. Obama's plan would instruct the Department of Education to rank colleges with their peers, according to new measures that evaluates their success and affordability. Some of these measures, according to the White House, include the following: * Access, such as percentage of students receiving Pell grants; * Affordability, such as average tuition, scholarships, and loan debt; and * Outcomes, such as graduation...

For years we've heard the propaganda line that everyone needs to go to college -- that a degree will improve your status and standard of living. It has become politically incorrect to even suggest that a higher education degree might not be right for every young American. So it's not surprising that those without a college degree often feel inferior and marginalized. Has a college degree become the litmus test for whether a person is well educated and successful? These highly successfully individuals would likely disagree with that premise. Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Richard...

Last year I wrote about some of the myths surrounding higher education in the U.S. You also have to beware of colleges acting to redistribute wealth. Following is an anecdote with which I am intimately acquainted: In the mid-‘90s, there was a family (a white family which you will see is a significant detail) whose daughter had a sterling high school record that guaranteed her acceptance at all but the very top colleges in the country. This girl had everything—a nearly perfect grade point average and strong SAT scores, leadership and citizenship awards, three MVP awards in two different sports,...

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — As we said in Part 1, the terms for lending money to college students for their tuition are such that they would make loan sharks green with envy. One aspect of these loansthat make them very attractive to private lenders is the near impossibility of them being discharged in bankruptcy. "They are almost guaranteed to be collected, so it is easy to sell the notes," said Barmak Nassirian, formerly an official with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. [Read: Avoid Popular Stocks like the Devil] More bluntly, Clare Law, a certified educational planner,...

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...