Posted on 05/30/2021 4:33:37 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
President Joe Biden has said he wants to provide $10,000 federal student debt relief. Some Democrats want that number to be $50,000.
NBC News spoke to people around the country about what student debt cancellation would mean for them. Below is a selection of their stories:
Steven Mewha, 36, grew up in a working-class Irish Scottish family in Philadelphia and is now a lawyer in Hawaii. His is a classic American success story, but it wasn’t without challenges — or debt.
He graduated from Temple University into a recession with around $40,000 worth of debt.
Jess Gawrych and Arielle Atherley, both 28, met at Boston University and have been together ever since. After college, they both pursued master's degrees at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., where they now reside and work.
Combined, they have about $278,000 in student debt, and together their payments total around $900 a month.
“I wouldn’t even begin to describe how grateful I would be if my debt was forgiven,” Gladys Villegas-Ocampo, of Florida, said.
Villegas-Ocampo, 39, who was born in Ecuador and came to the U.S. as a young child, says when the bills come every month — cars, rent, loans, insurance — she has to choose which to pay.
She will graduate with more than $50,000 in federal student loan debt and a monthly payment of $336.
Alicia Corby, 38, took out more than $225,000 in federal student loans to attend law school. Her current balance now is somewhere around $350,000.
“I owe about $40,000 a year in interest,” Corby, of California, said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
“Tuition” is the MSRP. Only very well-off people pay MSRP at the Ivies.
At Harvard, as an example, a student with $65,000 household income or less goes free. Twenty percent of students go for free.
Financial aid is still offered at AGIs above $150,000 (in some cases, as much as $250,000).
It’s possible to get through without any loans. But most students blow off the work-study requirement, and average four-year debt is $23,000.
Not $278,000.
If your family is in the range of about $125,000 - $250,000, and doesn’t choose to pay the tuition bill due for the current year, debt can mount.
But except in the cases of folks eligible for no financial aid (typically over $250,000/year family income) who decide to finance most or all of the tuition, room, and board, running up a couple of hundred thousands of dollars in debt is very hard to do.
Typically, Harvard, Yale and Princeton have offered the most generous aid. The other Ivies, though, are generous.
So, while, in certain circumstances, it’s possible to run up very large amounts of debt at the Ivies, you have to be very stupid.
Get a good lawyer. That delay in trying to collect, if true is alone a good reason for you not to have to pay the debt.
Also, it may well be that the correspondence school itself was one of those that had to settle and lose their right to collect student debts due to their own fraudulent activity.
Get a good lawyer who will fight for your rights.
This whole problem with student debt could be resolved rather quickly by the current govt just ginning up the treasury printing press for another trillion or so dollars and releasing the debtors from their obligation to pay off the loans they freely agreed to repay at some point. My husband and I both worked while he got his degree from George Wash. At one time he juggled three different jobs and while we were both busy, we had the time of our young lives being busy, productive, and friendly with all of our other busy friends. The GI bill was probably one of the best investment this govt ever made for the future betterment of this Republic. Not surprising if many of us have little, if any, sympathy for those citizens who live the academic life for years on the taxpayer dime and are looking for an out from repaying their education debt.
All work is Honorable....try and eat at a fine restaurant without dishwashers and you'll find out real fast you won't eat that fine steak you ordered.......or next time your vehicle needs serviced.
People who elevate their 'work' by slamming those who also work hard at what they do...are despicable!
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I’ll gladly pay it. If and only if they remove the Indian H1B and other Indian visa scumbags from the US and give Americans a chance at real middle class jobs at real middle class wages.
I’m sure in the effk not working a menial labor job to pay it off. Other loans for all other sources except student loans have a statute of limitations and can be discharged in bankruptcy.
Just like all the back state income tax I still owe California. I've told them that I am fully willing to pay - if they accede to my lengthy list of demands (better trash clean-up along the state highways; friendlier service at the state assessor's office; shorter lines at the DMV).
That's only reasonable, isn't it?
Regards,
Oh, great, here comes Starcitizen to f***ing whinge incessantly about H1Bs and foreign workers, whilst working in Singapore himself and evading US taxes. Very constructive input, thanks so much.
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You want to open yourself and Free Republic to a defamation lawsuit with your accusations? You better have god damn and solid evidence of your accusations.
Banned
As a parent of students in one of the best high schools in the state if not the country, I went with my kids to college financial aid seminars put on by the high school...
Parents/students were explicitly told to not worry about the cost...Find the college of your dreams, etc...Take loans, etc...
It was outrageous “advice”...With no other major life purchase (car, home) are people told not to consider the cost or benefits. Many parents and students in my community bought into the lies/hype...with kids going to extremely expensive schools with questionable degrees...sometimes simply because they liked the campus, area of the country, etc...
Fast forward a few years....So now families like mine who had a budget/took no loans/had kids pay-go or families where the kids chose apprenticeships, non-college alternatives etc. are being asked to pay debts for those spendthrifts who did not care about the costs?
My BP is off the charts!!!
It seems another lesson that the Trump era taught me was how myopic, greedy and amoral the right wing really is. The right wing money hucksters never really liked Trumps pro US worker appeal...
Absolutely nothing for me.
My wife had student loans 30 years after she graduated college. She died in Sep 2019, so the student loans are gone.
Myself? I joined the navy, picked up some analytical skills, and some (not too much, though) self respect and have been in computers, networking, wireless, security for over 30 years now.
Now, 50,000 off my mortgage would be fantastic!
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