Posted on 09/30/2014 1:59:54 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Todays students are being crushed with John Bunyans proverbial burden on their backs student loan debt. Until relatively recently this debt could have been discharged in bankruptcy.
Then all that changed when Sallie Mae, the Student Loan Marketing Association, was privatized in 2004. Albert Lord, the new CEO, and his lobbyists went to work to change the laws so that student loans could not be discharged in bankruptcy. Today the cumulative student loan debt is more than $1 trillion.
While a generation ago a high school diploma was considered sufficient for a decent middle class entry level job, today its a college diploma even if the job itself could be easily accomplished by a person with just a high school education.
In Sallie Mae annual reports, CEO Albert Lord has boasted that the companys extraordinary financial growth could be attributed to fees collected from defaulted loans, as well as loan origination growth. Lord, who personally invested hundreds of thousands of dollars (on the books) in politicians and PACs involved with education legislation is probably the largest individual beneficiary of student loan privatization.
In 2001, US News reported that Mr. Lords compensation for the year 2000 had skyrocketed to over $33 million. From 1999-2004, Sallie Maes top two executives, Al Lord and Tom Fitzpatrick, received compensation worth $225 million and $245 million, respectively. Both men have regularly topped Fortune Magazines list of highest paid CEOs in the Washington D.C. Area. Albert Lord also put in a bid to purchase a major league baseball team, the Washington Nationals, with the wealth he extracted from defaulted borrowers.
(Excerpt) Read more at sandiegofreepress.org ...
I guess I really lucked out. I worked for a large company that was going through a tremendous growth period. After being burned by hiring a lot of “educated idiots”, they decided to assess the current employees. I aced their tests and went on to profit monetarily and gained the experience to further expand my career.
I sued a lawyer and he declared BK without disclosing to me. I did an exam on him and found that he paid his student debt off with a credit card THEN filed BK. He got away with it.
No argument from me - but for those going into a four year college a jc is not a bad option for the first two years
Wait a minute. No one put a gun to their heads to make them take out a student loan. Besides, there are scores of state colleges and universities with tuition rates that are not bank-busting.
>>Well, since shes a lovely young lady... maybe she could marry a rich man or something. Theyre always looking for lovely young ladies.
That could help solve her problems... :)
<<
At Pepperdine we called that the M R S degree.
And it happened A LOT!
These colleges price gouge like crazy and nobody says anything, but anytime we have a gas shortage and some middle of nowhere gas station raises it’s price a buck, there’s every politician from here to the moon holding press conferences protesting.
What is the financial sector impact if student loans were bankruptable again?
Dave Ramsey has said several times the problem with student loans is the parents not saying no. No, you won’t go out of state. No, you won’t live on campus. No, you will not enroll in a worthless degree because you enjoy reading about it. No, you will not flunk out of classes and not care about repeating remedial courses. No, you will not laze around and take six years to finish.
Geez don’t give them any ideas.......
You also cannot discharge claims or judgments based on fraud.
You’re right; if more parents refused to co-sign the loans, there wouldn’t be a massive crisis. If parents ordered their kids to learn a trade and pay their own way I am certain that kids would be learning a work ethic, THEN going to university.
Then the fools would appreciate their time learning more and end up making productive use of their time at school. Frankly I am so sure that it would also mean we would be graduating a group of solid hardworking skilled professionals as well.
Same here; let them pay their own way instead of taking out loans.
Amazing...
It’s emotional immaturity; they want to keep being taken care of.
I just made my last payment. Celebrated by going to the range.
Nice
simple solution, make the universities/colleges/vocational schools EQUALLY liable for the debt.
higher education is nothing more than a free government money mill.
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