Showing posts with label Lawrence Bacow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lawrence Bacow. Show all posts

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt: The Student-Loan Crisis is Getting Worser and Worser

"It's a thankless job," Kurt Vonnegut observed in Titans of Siren, "telling people it's a hard, hard Universe they're in."

I know how Kurt feels. I've been writing about the student loan crisis for 25 years. About ten years ago, I started blogging about it.  I've written over 900 essays, and I've gotten a million hits. 

Has anything changed?

The short answer is no. Forty-five million Americans have outstanding federal loans, a total of $1.8 trillion. Americans hold another $150 billion in private student loans, and students' parents owe another $100 billion.

Research confirms that student debt prevents people from getting married, buying homes, and saving for retirement. Indeed, some college graduates would be better off financially had they never gone to college.

Over the years, Congress and the Department of Education have launched various programs to ease the burden of college debt, but everything they do just makes matters worse.

Income-based repayment plans, which set repayment rates based on a borrower's income, have turned nine million student debtors into indentured servants who make monthly payments based on their income, not how much they owe.

The result? Virtually none of those nine million people will ever pay off their student loans because their monthly payments aren't big enough to cover accruing interest. As a practical matter, these college borrowers have defaulted on their loans even though DOE pretends the loans are in good standing.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program benefits people who take low-paying service jobs (firefighters, teachers, EMS personnel, etc.). But until recently, only about two percent of the people who thought they were entitled to PSLF debt relief actually got it.

Parent PLUS loans have driven thousands of families into poverty, but Congress refuses to reform the Parent PLUS program. The Wall Street Journal published an essay listing five reasons Congress refuses to act--including the colleges' desire to get Parent PLUS revenue.

When I started writing about the federal student loan program, I viewed it solely as a problem for individual student borrowers--not a boondoggle that could weaken the entire nation.

But it's now clear to me that the program has become so large, corrupt, and mismanaged that it is destroying the integrity of American higher education and undermining the national economy.  Millions of student debtors cannot buy homes, save for retirement, or start families because they are burdened with college debt they can never repay.

Our higher education leaders tell themselves that they are the most sensitive people in America. They constantly prattle about equity, inclusion, and the need to expand opportunities for low-income Americans.

But not a single university president has called for student-loan reform. No college CEO has demanded an overhaul of the Parent PLUS program or legislation to stop the Department of Education from garnishing Social Security checks of elderly student-loan defaulters. 

 Harvard President Lawrence Bacow bent over backward to get a student visa for a single Palestinian, but has this Ivy League prig said anything about a federal program that has injured millions of people, including students at his own university? No, he has not.

University leaders have nothing to say about the federal student loan program because their institutions are addicted to federal money. The status quo suits them just fine.

 After all, if college students graduate with worthless degrees and a mountain of debt, it's not the universities' problem. The colleges get their money upfront.


Harvard University: Ain't we got fun!



Friday, March 6, 2020

Retirees with student-loan debt should ask elderly presidential candidates what they plan to do about the student-loan crisis

Last month, the New York Times ran a story about retirement-age Americans who are struggling to pay off student-loan debt. As reported by Times writer Tammy La Gorce, 2.8 million Americans in their 60s have student-loan obligations, a number that has quadrupled since 2005.

The average debt load for elderly student-loan debtors has nearly doubled between 2012 and 2017--from $12,100 to $23,500. And, according to the Times story, most student-loan debt held by older Americans was taken out to pay for for their children's education.

Many of these elderly student-loan debtors jeopardized their own retirement by borrowing money to get their kids through college. And these debts are virtually impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.

It is now inevitable that the United States will elect an old guy for President in November: Donald Trump, age 73; Joe Biden, age 77; or Bernie Sanders, who is 78.  Will they be sympathetic to senior Americans who are burdened by student debt?

Why don't we inquire? If we get an opportunity to question Bernie, Biden, or Trump, these are the questions we should ask.

First, do you support the bill that Congressman John Katko introduced in Congress to eliminate the "undue hardship" provision in the Bankruptcy Code so that insolvent Americans can discharge student debt in bankruptcy just like any other unsecured consumer debt? Yes or no.

Second, do you support the repeal of the so-called "Bankruptcy Reform Act" that made it more difficult and more expensive for financially distressed Americans to get bankruptcy relief? Yes or no?

Third,  do you support legislation that would prohibit the federal government from garnishing the Social Security checks of retired Americans who defaulted on their student loans? Again, yes or no?

And here are some candidate-specific questions to ask:

President Trump, you indicated that the Department of Education is looking at some options for relieving the suffering of college borrowers who are burdened by student-loan debt? Precisely what do you have in mind?

Senator Sanders, do you have any plan for addressing the student-loan crisis other than forgiving $1.6 trillion in student debt?  If you are elected President, and Congress refuses to approve your loan-forgiveness promise, do you have any other ideas about relieving the student-debt crisis?

Former VP Joe Biden, do you regret your role in passing the notorious Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005? Would you work to repeal the law if you are elected President?  Would you at least repeal the provision that makes private student loans almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy?

Curiously, although the student-loan program is totally out of control and burdens 45 million Americans, the media has not pressed any of the presidential candidates about the student-loan crisis.

College and university leaders have said almost nothing about this catastrophe, and they won't be asking the presidential candidates any awkward questions about the federal student-loan program. Harvard, for example, took in $4 billion in federal money between 2011 and 2015. The student-loan program works just fine for America's wealthiest university.

But ordinary Americans need to know what Bernie, Biden, and Trump plan to do if they are elected President. Ask those questions yourself because the press and the universities aren't interested.


Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow: Student-loan crisis? What student-loan crisis?