| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-Economics |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
28 Nov 2005 08:27:53 PM |
| Object: |
Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
The Senate recommended slashing $14 billion in student aid programs as
part of the budget reconciliation process.
The House of Representatives proposed nearly $9 billion in similar
cuts, forcing the average student borrower to pay an additional $5,800
in already unaffordable debt.
http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/28641/
November 28, 2005.
Burying College Grads in Debt
By Elana Berkowitz and John Burton, Campus Progress.
The average student now graduates with three and a half times more
debt than ten years ago, but still Washington wants to cut even more
student aid.
Congratulations, parents of the Class of 2009!
As you read this, your child is settling into the routines of college
life:
ill-timed early morning lectures, inevitable all-night cram sessions,
and the search for parties on a now fairly familiar campus.
While the pleasures of college life remain the same, the economic
security that a degree used to guarantee has disappeared.
This fall, the Class of 2009 joins the ranks of an emerging debtor
class composed of educated young adults.
The average student borrower now graduates with $27,600 of debt,
almost three and a half times what it was a decade ago.
84 percent of black students and 66 percent of Latino students
graduate with debt.
And 39 percent of all student borrowers graduate with unmanageable
levels of debt, according to the Department of Education.
After graduation, young people confront unaffordable rents in markets
like San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago or New York, where the
majority of young adults pay between 30 and 50 percent of their income
to rent.
And what income?
Between 2000 and 2003, wages for college educated men and women
between 23 and 29 years of age were down 3.5 percent and 1.2 percent
respectively.
In this flat, stagnant job market, most new opportunities are in jobs
like burger flipping and jeans folding.
Manpower, a temp agency, is the biggest private employer in the
country.
Many jobs in more desirable and competitive industries have salaries
starting in the low $20,000s that offer little by way of benefits or
healthcare.
Add to that young people's average credit card debt of over $4,000.
Set aside your stereotypes of irresponsible youth:
Over 70 percent of undergraduates use credit cards to buy school
supplies, food and textbooks.
24 percent use their credit cards for tuition.
Credit card companies are becoming the high-interest student loan
industry of last resort.
When it's all totaled up, young people spend 25 percent of every
dollar earned on paying off debts and loans.
Federal policy isn't keeping pace with reality.
Soaring education costs and inflation have not been met with aid
increases.
Caps on federal student loans have forced students to seek private
loans, which were up from $1.1 billion in 1995-96 to $10.6 billion in
2003-04.
These loans have much higher, often predatory, interest rates.
Today, the average Pell Grant covers only 40 percent of college
tuition, compared to 77 percent 25 years ago.
And under President Bush, the Department of Education revised Pell
Grant eligibility guidelines, effectively excluding almost 100,000
young people from the program and reducing grant money for another 1.2
million.
This month, the U.S. Congress poured salt in the wounds:
The Senate recommended slashing $14 billion in student aid programs as
part of the budget reconciliation process.
The House of Representatives proposed nearly $9 billion in similar
cuts, forcing the average student borrower to pay an additional $5,800
in already unaffordable debt.
Despite some unusual Republican dissent in the ranks, late last night,
the budget bill passed by a razor thin margin.
The final bill included $50 billion in cuts including $14.3 billion in
cuts to federal higher education funding -- the largest cuts to
federal student loans in American history.
(Though the reconciliation bill received much negative response from
Democrats and even a few Republicans, very few people spoke out
against the education cuts, focusing instead on issues like Medicare
and food stamps.)
Eighteen-year-olds now must borrow tens of thousands of dollars to
invest in themselves -- because their country will not invest in them.
Moreover, federal tax policy isn't exactly working in the favor of
young people making low wages.
We can't ask our buddies in the White House to just write off our
student loan payments.
We pay taxes on each and every dollar that we make in wages, tips, and
salaries.
We don't have stock portfolios, houses, and other assets to
re-structure our tax liability.
We bear the full brunt of life without loopholes -- but forget
fairness:
struggling to limit the size of a hurricane-wrecked federal budget,
Congress has made it clear that they are prepared to treat us a good
deal worse than they already have -- before they dare close the
loopholes, shut down the giveaways, and trim the no-bid contracts for
the well-connected and well-off.
Parents: remember that youthful knot in your stomach as you looked at
the world after graduation and wondered about your place in it?
We do that too.
Only we look at the world as twenty-somethings sandbagged with the
kind of debt that, until recently, would have taken decades to accrue.
Recent surveys by the Cambridge Consumer Index and the Education
Department confirm that student borrowers are deferring major life
decisions like the purchase of a first home or marriage.
Energetic young college grads could soon invest in start-ups, emerging
markets and new technologies if we entered adulthood burdened only by
our high expectations and ideals.
Educational debt hobbles the very group of risk-takers and innovators
that has historically rejuvenated the American economy when, like now,
it starts to flag.
Love us, hate us, tolerate us -- young people are your future.
Fail to invest in us at your own peril.
Thirty years from now we won't be able to take care of our parents if
we're still living in a converted closet in a group house.
So here's our counter-offer:
We need common sense policies that relieve the debt burden on students
and recent graduates.
Parents of students and recent graduates:
tell them not to cut one dime of student aid.
Tell them you'll remember how they voted and promise to hold them
accountable.
We'll do the heavy lifting, but we need you to let Washington to know
that you're watching and that you care about the issue.
Work with us now to affect change, and we promise we'll never have to
trade you into the traveling circus for a week's worth of Ramen
noodles or sell you on eBay to cover the rent.
________________________________________________________
Elana Berkowitz is the editor of CampusProgress.org -- a
youth-oriented online magazine run by the Center for American
Progress. John Burton is an economic policy research associate at the
Center for American Progress. Both graduated from college in 2001.
Harry
.
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
29 Nov 2005 01:29:14 AM |
|
|
A better question is whether America NEEDS so many college
graduates. With all the computer-programming jobs being "offshored" to
India, with my city (Burlington, North Carolina) awash in downsized
engineers, with it easy for your next restaurant meal to be served by a
waitress with a four-year degree, whether America needs more kids going
to four-year colleges at all - or more going to community colleges to
become those scarce electricians etc. - is a legitimate question.
No $4 to park! No $6 admission! http://www.INTERNET-GUN-SHOW.com
.
|
|
|
| User: "Razor Face" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
29 Nov 2005 04:38:20 AM |
|
|
<editor@netpath.net> wrote in message
news:1133249354.256154.166520@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
A better question is whether America NEEDS so many college
graduates. With all the computer-programming jobs being "offshored" to
India, with my city (Burlington, North Carolina) awash in downsized
engineers, with it easy for your next restaurant meal to be served by a
waitress with a four-year degree, whether America needs more kids going
to four-year colleges at all - or more going to community colleges to
become those scarce electricians etc. - is a legitimate question.
You raise an interesting question that should be discussed more. I have a
four-year degree in computer science. However, I'd be far better off today
if I had gone to trade school to become an electrician or even a plumber.
.
|
|
|
| User: "Winston Smith, American Patriot" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
29 Nov 2005 05:45:15 AM |
|
|
"Razor Face" <razorface@NoSpam.no> wrote in
news:wcWif.34311$6e1.27882@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com:
<editor@netpath.net> wrote in message
news:1133249354.256154.166520@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
A better question is whether America NEEDS so many college
graduates. With all the computer-programming jobs being "offshored"
to India, with my city (Burlington, North Carolina) awash in
downsized engineers, with it easy for your next restaurant meal to be
served by a waitress with a four-year degree, whether America needs
more kids going to four-year colleges at all - or more going to
community colleges to become those scarce electricians etc. - is a
legitimate question.
You raise an interesting question that should be discussed more. I
have a four-year degree in computer science. However, I'd be far
better off today if I had gone to trade school to become an
electrician or even a plumber.
Old joke:
A doctor calls a plumber after seeing his sink leaking in the kitchen.
The plumber shows up and the doctor leads him to the kitchen, pointing to
the leak from the trap.
"Get right to it," the plumber says.
After an hour the plumber tells the doctor, "All fixed."
"What's the damage?" asks the doctor, as the plumber hands him the written
statement.
"$250 for labor!!" exclaims the doctor. "Hell, I am an internist and I
only charge $100 an hour on my job!"
Plumber looks calmly at him and says, "Yeah, I used to only charge that
much when I was a family practice specialist."
Another old joke (insult):
Apprentice: I think I am going to quit this and join the plumbers' trade.
Master Electrician: What do you want to do that for? The only thing
plumbers know is that ***** runs downhill and Friday's pay day.
--
http://hume.realisticpolitics.com/
The real danger to the future of humanity is the preference
for surrendering to fear, superstition, and faith
in absolutist belief systems, and so to submit to these
willingly and to the control of those demagogues who
make use of these, rather than preferring
to reason with one's own mind.
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
29 Nov 2005 09:43:22 PM |
|
|
Razor Face wrote:
You raise an interesting question that should be discussed more. I have a
four-year degree in computer science. However, I'd be far better off today
if I had gone to trade school to become an electrician or even a plumber.
I have a law degree and a bachelor's in math and chemistry - BUT if
I had it to do all over again, I'd have gone to community college
instead and become either an electrician, gunsmith, or registered
nurse. (I'm now taking prenursing courses.)
America has far too many graduates of four-year colleges now - but a
dire shortage of nurses, small-engine repair people, plumbers, and
electricians. It's absurd to use tax money to worsen it.
No $6 admission! http://www.INTERNET-GUN-SHOW.com
.
|
|
|
| User: "nospam" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
30 Nov 2005 06:18:44 AM |
|
|
wrote:
America has far too many graduates of four-year colleges now - but a
dire shortage of nurses, small-engine repair people, plumbers, and
electricians. It's absurd to use tax money to worsen it.
Don't worry, market will fix it. All the new cutting edge technologies are
going to be developed in India and China, and US is going to become a third
world country with rampant poverty, where the most educated people will be
nurses, plumbers and electricians.
Or at least this is the radical right wingers dream about the future.
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "Protocol Droid" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
29 Nov 2005 04:38:10 AM |
|
|
wrote...
A better question is whether America NEEDS so many college
graduates. With all the computer-programming jobs being "offshored" to
India, with my city (Burlington, North Carolina) awash in downsized
engineers, with it easy for your next restaurant meal to be served by a
waitress with a four-year degree, whether America needs more kids going
to four-year colleges at all - or more going to community colleges to
become those scarce electricians etc. - is a legitimate question.
Individuals do need education if they hope to escape ignorance. Note
I said "education" not "college" -- although most professors I know
say that if someone looks at college as a trade school, they're there
for the wrong reasons anyway.
I don't expect you to agree (although you might) with the idea that
learning history and how to do algebra and even calculus imparts, as
a side effect, a perspective on the world that's valuable even if you
don't become a schoolteacher or engineer. Working and living in NYC,
I've met many foreign-born people, from cab drivers to fellow
engineers, who all attest to a cultural love of and respect for
learning as its own reward regardless of the socio-economic role the
individual serves others in. Even the foreign-born cab drivers who
never made it out of high school were generally much brighter and
more well-rounded people than many American BA holders I've met.
Knowledge and insight are indeed their own rewards. How is it funny
or harmful to you if the person making your Starbucks coffee
Americans are generally reluctant to learn anything that can't put to
practical use--as if knowledge and insight were burdensome to carry
unless you were going to be paid to do it. I've never understood
that attitude, although I do fully understand how ignorance in
general makes someone very easy prey for politicians and other scum
who manipulate others for their personal gain.
--
"If you want peace, work for justice." (H.L. Mencken 1880-1956)
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "RArmant" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
29 Nov 2005 07:21:52 AM |
|
|
On 28 Nov 2005 23:29:14 -0800, "editor@netpath.net" <editor@netpath.net>
wrote:
A better question is whether America NEEDS so many college
graduates. With all the computer-programming jobs being "offshored" to
India, with my city (Burlington, North Carolina) awash in downsized
engineers, with it easy for your next restaurant meal to be served by a
waitress with a four-year degree, whether America needs more kids going
to four-year colleges at all - or more going to community colleges to
become those scarce electricians etc. - is a legitimate question.
An even better question is if computer programming and engineering are
glutted fields why does the Bush Administration continue to issue H-1b
visas in mass? It is the H-1b and L-1 visas that glutted these fields
not offshore outsourcing. To the idiot press these non-immigration visas
look too much like immigration so they have chosen to lie to the
American public that the record level of unemployment among high
tech workers was brought about by offshore outsourcing.
Beware of Bush (and GOP) guest worker schemes!!!
.
|
|
|
|
|
| User: "nospam" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
28 Nov 2005 10:23:51 PM |
|
|
Harry Hope wrote:
The Senate recommended slashing $14 billion in student aid programs as
part of the budget reconciliation process.
The House of Representatives proposed nearly $9 billion in similar
cuts, forcing the average student borrower to pay an additional $5,800
in already unaffordable debt.
Into a society that require educated people to survive, neocons fight
against education.
It is called: Rip & Run economics.
(c) Neocons 2005
.
|
|
|
| User: "salad" |
|
| Title: Re: Republicans Are Burying College Grads in Debt |
29 Nov 2005 01:07:37 AM |
|
|
nospam wrote:
Harry Hope wrote:
The Senate recommended slashing $14 billion in student aid programs as
part of the budget reconciliation process.
The House of Representatives proposed nearly $9 billion in similar
cuts, forcing the average student borrower to pay an additional $5,800
in already unaffordable debt.
Into a society that require educated people to survive, neocons fight
against education.
It is called: Rip & Run economics.
(c) Neocons 2005
To Republicans, a healthy nation is an uneducated, stupid nation.
.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
