Posted on 07/01/2023 7:30:51 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan on Friday, a measure that would have wiped out nearly half a trillion dollars in debt for millions of Americans.
The decision will impact the nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites that have federal student loan debt -- a total that adds up to more than $20 billion.
Sid Bagley is one of those people who took out a federal student loan. He went back to school at age 45 to get a business administration degree and better himself.
“I hated my job so much I made the initiative to go back to school and do something better,” said Bagley.
But going back to school wasn’t cheap.
"I pay about $220 bucks a month in student loan repayment, which is also the same amount my rent went up this year,” Bagley said.
Since then, he’s been working hard to pay those loans back.
"I can see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, it's just having to work so hard and so much just to get there."
Biden's plan to shave $10,000 off that total meant a lot to Bagley, but Friday morning's Supreme Court decision turned that around.
Those opposed to loan forgiveness say the decision is fair, however.
"How on earth can anyone say it is fair for them to pay for other people's education?" Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden tweeted.
Bagley disagrees.
“They think we're privileged, when — look at me, I'm wearing safety yellow and stuff, I'm working my butt off, I work three jobs just to make a decent living for myself,” said Bagley.
President Biden said Friday afternoon that he is not giving up the fight to forgive student debt, saying his administration is working on a new plan as payments are set to resume in the coming weeks.
Oh, and great of you to do that for your mom. Going back to school at that age can be scary. It’s good that you helped her live her dream.
Everybody wants to wear a flight suit, big watch, Ray-bans. What they don’t want to do, is spend the long hours studying aeronautics and calculus, join the military, go to flight school and all that jazz. Everybody wants to wear scrubs and a stethoscope and be called “Doc”. What they don’t want to do, is spend the long hours studying biology and chemistry and cell division, get accepted to medical school, residency, etc.
Everybody seems to want to start out at the top, too. Notice all the demands for set aside slots on board of director or CEO positions or whatever. Strangely enough they are silent about Plumbers or Roofers or Ditchdiggers.
It’s a Mystery!
“Don’t take out loans you can’t afford to pay back.” Good advice for fifth graders. Credit is better than debt.
The main reason that the cost of college tuition is through the roof is because of the easy availability of student loans. I am a small business owner. If I know that my customer has a guaranteed pot of money to pay for goods or services, they will be charged the rack rate. Conversely, if money is tight for the consumer, my prices come down accordingly. Get rid of the student loans and the cost of a college education would drop by 50%.
Mr. Bagley obviously does not believe that he got adequate ROI for the money (let alone the time!) he spent getting whatever worthless training he wasted time and money on. Can you imagine how much more worthless wasting of time and money we can have if “education” is “free”, where “free” means someone other than the “beneficiary” pays for it.
Countries that have “free” higher education generally only send a small percentage, about 5%, of their students to higher ed. And it’s one and done, if you flunk out or take a gap year, so long, no second chances. The rationale is that society benefits from training doctors, engineers, lawyers and managers. Since Mr. Bagley himself does not believe that he derived any benefit, or adequate benefit for the time and money wasted on his “education”, why should we believe that his actions benefited society, unless keeping a bunch of unemployable eggheads off welfare is somehow a benefit to society.
I honestly believe that aside from specialized training like medicine and engineering high education is a net drag on our society. We would be far better off if all liberal arts colleges simply closed their doors forever.
So the left hates us when we point out foolish gender studies majors at universities and other wasteful classes. Also when we point out do nothing positions at universities.
And then they hate us when they have too much expense and loans to pay back and we don’t want to pay their loans back for them.
The whole university system is corrupt and hopelessly bloated. We have sports facilities worth hundreds of millions. Student athletes making hundreds of thousands in NIL money.
Time to carve universities back. Fire the gender studies departments. Fire the climate change warriors. Bring back spartan dorms and plain food. Or have them live at home and work during the day and take online classes at night.
Its OBSCENE what the university system has blasted in to.
It wasn't always that way. It used to be a place where intellectuals would seek knowledge instead of getting indoctrinated.
Bagley Brains should have also had a plan B...find a darling engineering student to marry!!! She could easily support his lazy ass and he could possibly have to have only one job.
Would love to see Bagley...
Pay your gd debts ya idiot deadbeat Xiden voters. FJB!
There is a great deal of value in a liberal arts education, but America’s liberal arts colleges do not offer any such education. They have been taken over a Jacobin cult of nihilist, unfortunately. I wish it were not true. Now they do far, far, more harm than any good they may provide.
We need more plumbers, electricians, ditch diggers, and roofers. Those are real jobs and most only require a good vocational school.
When I graduated from high school in the 70’s, all of the boys wanted to go into those jobs. People did what they could afford.
Now it’s all about prestige. They never give a thought about how they will pay for it.
Most of my instructors hated the kids coming to college now. They didn’t want to do the work. She said high school doesn’t prepare them for college or life. They wanted to come to class when they wanted to, turn in work late, ask for extra credit when they didn’t do the original work, and on and on. They were lazy. I asked one instructor what was wrong with those kids. She said they were all going to school on their parent’s dime and didn’t really care. It was all a party to them.
I agree with the ruling, but this will hurt Republicans election chances.
Make the loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, put the schools on the hook for a portion of them, and the system will collapse to the level it should be
You’re lucky you had dirt..
Companies don’t do that anymore for the reason you lined out. That much cost to educate a worker and no pay back.
Tuition assistance has been eliminated in the last 10 years or so.
I work in the Medical field.....Over my many years....I have known some real stupid Doc’s.
Yep. My oldest daughter is an attorney but she can run pipe and wire, run a backhoe and skidsteer, bale hay, and re-roof a house.
Umm...No.
It, just, would have transferred that debt to others.
Me too. My spring breaks as an undergraduate were spent roto holing alfalfa fields and feeding our cows.
MFO
I love that! It sounds like you have a lovely, close family.
Where’s that tiny violin? Anyone?
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