Student loans

Curious if everyone is also against Federal Grants they give to students that are not repaid?

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That tax deduction has been capped. So it actually helps lower income folks more than the higher income.

I swung a hammer and went to night school 6-10:00 four days a week for 6.5 years to pay for my 4 year degree…

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Lord, where did you dig that one up from www.imasocialist.com?

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Congrats for setting a good example on how to get an education without going broke. I did the same

So YOUR the one that lowered our 4 year graduation rates and preventing
UH from becoming AAU eligible ! Thanks a lot.

:wink:
Just kidding, I suspect that may be norm of many UH alums here.

To be clear, I’m not hyper upset of the 10-20k debt cancellation, but would prefer
to see something put in place or tweaks to the system to prevent this from happening over.

In Texas you would have to look at the state leaders that allowed the state to avoid
funding higher education as the previous generations saw fit to do.

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And we all walked uphill both ways to our classes in driving blizzards.

Circumstances change. Not crazy about the loan forgiveness, but don’t assume the recipients are both undeserving and reckless with money.

FWIW, it may be the provision cited to forgive the loans will be challenged. However, this is a gift to the GOP because they can campaign on it. Lots of Dems aren’t happy, either.

So, this is announced, not implemented.

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True this is likely to be overturned by Scotus

Look everyone, we are all very sympathetic to the guy who walked up a hill in a snowstorm with 20 lbs of books with no socks to go to school. I know many people worked and paid for school; of course in those days, college costs $300! My dad paid for UH while waiting tables. Can’t do that today.

Fact is, times have changed; colleges in this country have been underfunded by states for decades. As such, kids must borrow to pay for college.

When I attended UH from 1996 to 2001,UH was $6,500/year. It is now $10,000 a semester! Graduate pay has not increased at the same rate. Student loans are also the only debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. In addition, the government can garnish your wages for failure to pay. The government also caps what you can deduct for student loan interest ($2,500/year reduced by AGI). In other words, the burdens of student borrowing are weighed heavily in favor of the lender.

$10,000 is not that much money and as a taxpayer who will not benefit from this (due to income), it doesn’t offend me in the least.

You guys remind me of my mom. While I love her to death, every time I asked her for something as a kid, the answer was always “No”, even before I was finished asking. That is not good and is very condescending. I promised that I would not do that to my kids, and I constantly have to work at it (we are all products of our environment).

Just because you did not get some benefit, doesn’t mean others should not get it. I don’t support police unions, so should I not pay parking tickets? Should today’s athletes make what yesterday’s athletes made, because otherwise its unfair? This is silly talk, and no one in their right mind would agree with this.

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Not so fast. First of all, someone has to show they are harmed and file. That may not be easy. The word any is what provides the authority for forgiving the loans. And it ain’t going to SCOTUS as it isn’t some case regarding constitutional authority or legality of some vital issue that the lower courts can’t resolve.

Could be the first challenge is dismissed by the courts, especially if similar actions have been ongoing across various administrations.

As I said elsewhere though, you have to consider what people are VOLUNTARILY choosing to do that puts them in debt.

You talked about having income to pay off student loans. I got it. But you were destined for a reasonably remunerative career in a reasonably prosperous profession. Suppose someone has no clear career goals or professional income expectations. Or suppose that someone’s ambition is to be a school teacher. That person could simply go to a JUCO for two years, and then to a State U for two more years, get his/her degree and teacher certification, and have relatively little in the way of college debt. Even on a teacher’s salary, that person can probably pay off their loans and get by.

Suppose, OTOH, that that same person, who does not have great earning expectations in their chosen profession, elects instead to go to an expensive private university, and go hundreds of thousands in debt to get a degree in a not so marketable field. That person goes into teaching, can’t come close to paying off those debts, and is left in financial ruin. Is it really the government or taxpayers’ job to pay for that student’s bad choices?

As I posted elsewhere. If you are $200K in student loan debt, then I sincerely hope that your degree is in MEDICINE. Otherwise, don’t expect the rest of us to pay for your poor, financially irresponsible decision making. They were YOUR choices, and YOU must take personal responsibility for them.

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I know of a few folks that graduated with me 500K + in debt, that was rare but it happened. I had no clue how they would handle that but expensive undergrad and expensive dental will do that.
Unfortunately, for folks graduating dental today, that 500K is becoming more of a norm. My advise is go to a cheaper undergrad. It does not matter at all in the admissions.

No, I am OK with that. What I am not OK with is people not being held responsible for choices they voluntarily made.

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It’s not voluntarily when states are massively underfunding higher education shifting the burden from public to private. It’s not voluntary when wages haven’t kept up with housing costs. Nor has it been voluntary that minimum wage hasn’t increased. The hours to pay a semester’s tuition has increased by nearly 3000% in the last 50 years thus making it a necessity for the average student to take out loans. And that’s their fault? Nah, society is collectively at fault.

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No, it’s voluntary — period.

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Make it rain!!!

states are massively underfunding higher education shifting the burden

To me this is key to what started the mess. States like Texas underfunding
their higher education, when it was able to do it for generations of college students.
But there seems a reluctance to want to address that by some.

When did students choose to make states underfund colleges and universities? When did they make housing costs skyrocket? Those things that have driven up the price of pursuing higher education is completely out of their control but a college degree is still a very important necessity to advance in our society. Another thing out of their control. But sure, completely voluntary and completely their fault.

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Isn’t that federalism…?

Not saying what’s wrong, or right… Just saying isn’t that how the system was designed to work; states have the right to choose to fund education, or not to… Right?