Posted on 09/24/2007 4:53:43 PM PDT by DogandPonyShow
Jan Yoder was preparing for her son's funeral when the phone rang. It was another student loan collector wanting to know when her son would pay up.
Her terse response: Jason is dead. And, she said, "You are part of the reason he took his own life.''
But the collectors aren't at fault. We are just the one's easy to blame.
A former boss I had was named Jan. His wife's name was Jonnie.
I am a Conservative who believes in personal responsibility but this S.L. system is really screwed up and a few lenders and their personnel at the top are reaping huge windfalls of both government money and debtor money.
This scandal is worse than the current home mortgage situation and the IRS abuses that were revealed by the Senate hearings in the mid-90s.
Blaming a suicide on somone wanting the money owed them is ludicrous.
Both our daughters went to state colleges and most of the costs were for room and board, not so much tuition, books and lab fees, etc. The big companies that control a lot of student housing in these college towns are real bloodsuckers.
The first sentence is true, but it’s a shame. The second sentence is false, and a good thing.
You borrow money from somebody, you need to give it back. Your difficulties should not be my difficulty, if I loaned you my money.
I struggled to pay off my student loans, but I did. I made sacrifices, and worked hard. Struggling to pay them off probably set me up for my greater earnins now, even moreso than the education I was paying for.
The major result of easy student loans has been increases in tuition. The colleges soak up the easy money and the students are no better off than they were before loans became easy.
There are scumbag lawyers all over this country who would take such a case. But that doesn't mean a jury would award them one dime. I know I wouldn't.
I ask you, if someone for circumstances beyond their control, can’t pay them back, should they be hounded for the rest of their lives with out ANY staute of limitations?
Or should there be some way to work out a compromise, which the IRS does and the credit card companies do EVERYDAY of the week.
Don’t let any secrets out about how bill collectors feel about these things.
What’s really screwed up is the pay of Administrators and College/University Presidents which must be supported....AND, the crap that purports to be required for a college education these days. As far as I’m concerned, most (NOT ALL) classes could be taken via the Internet....and the costs would be TREMENDOUSLY less....but, then whatcha goin to do about TENURE?
So many universities have become obsessed with money at the expense of providing an education, that government needs to intervene to promote balance.
I propose a State level “educational value act”, in which students who fail to find gainful employment in their degree field within a period of time, are rebated part of the expense of their government student loans *at the expense* of the institution they graduated. And because post graduate work is even demanding of more student resources than with just money, students should be able to get *more* than the value of their loans.
Such a law would force universities to do several things, and with considerable emphasis:
1) Insure that students have the *best* possible education for entry into their degree career. And that *no* student is graduated who does not rise to employment standards in that field. And that universities track employment opportunities in the economy.
2) Force close coordination between university placement officers and employers. Schools should go the distance to insure their graduates are hired. To push for their students being hired.
3) Degrees, both graduate and post graduate, would be restricted in fields with limited employment prospects. “Basket Weaving” should not even be offered unless their are jobs for basket weavers suitable for repayment of student debt. There is absolutely no reason to graduate far more PhDs than there are available openings for them.
4) Elimination of vast numbers of elective subjects that have no bearing on graduate employment prospects. A liberal education is one thing, but courses in Klingon language, the impact of lesbianism during the Renaissance, and the cosmology of an Elvis-centric universe have no business being taught at taxpayer, or even student expense.
Now granted, it can be hard to predict how the economy will be in four or more years, or where the educational opportunities will lie. But it should not be unusually difficult to determine if a university has impoverished students without giving them the education they need.
An employment slump for engineers, for example, will be included in the student’s grace period as well as the universities. Such slumps can be tracked. But if there is no slump, *and* many engineer graduates are not gainfully employed, something is amiss.
And there will never be a need for hundreds of college educated Bachelors of Science in basket weaving.
Finally, if there is a good jobs market for a particular skill, and many other placements, but just a few outstanding non-hires, this also indicates that no rebate is in order, as there is a distinct possibility that they are turkeys. Not the universities fault.
OJ jury...Robert Blake jury....Michael Jackson jury....the sleepwalking murderer jury (not guilty)....
Show me ANY crazy cause of action and I’ll find a shyster lawyer willing to take the case in 24 hours or less.Guaranteed.These vultures are a plague on society.
How many years did he play Playstation?
All this guy had to do was to screen his phone calls. What can these collection agencies do, besides ruin his credit and bother him. I have heard of very few students who had their legs broken or gotten whacked by a bank!
The fact that two companies called with openings is a non factor....they would have taken a look at his debt levels during a background examination and probably declined him employment.
As a father of 5 kids I am seeing a trend.
Colleges are priced out-of-this-world. The loan sharks are pushed by the financial aid offices and everyone’s perception of expensive schools are hidden by the loan man coming along to give money. The schools even get kick-back fees for the more kids that borrow monies.
The cost of higher-education is spiraling out of control and the value of the education is dwindling in almost an inverse proportion.
Sadly, most people who find themselves in a bind don't know how to deal with the pressure tactics that collections agencies train their people to use and, people like this kid (who had other depression problems) are affected more than others.
It's sad, but on the other hand, nobody ever forced me to go into debt. Any debt I've ever had has been self-inflicted.
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