Cancelling all student debt
http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/
Well, this would be an easy fix. But what is the real problem that made this situation so bad in the first place? And after determining the problem, is this really the solution?
On the moral hazard side of things, what about all those who had paid their own way? Should we reimburse them for their tuition costs? If so, how far back do we go?
Lots of questions, no easy answers.
(edit: this is a *petition*, so please don't think this is legislation or anything like that!)
justintime 
Brad2There is other way to resolve student debt issue - create more jobs, jobs that pay enough to pay student debts, and hire graduates. There are so many kids who graduated HS with my daughter, went to great colleges, graduated with good degrees and can't find jobs that require their knowledge. Many had internships. Some now works for non-profit, some now moved back to parents houses. Just a few of them got decent jobs and able to pay student loans.
And really, if student loans were paid - who will give people money back?
Lena There should be a petition to not cancel out student debt. That debt was taken on by choice. I paid my loan off entirely. I chose a community college first and then transferred to a college that I could afford. In fact, I took a year off in between transferring to make sure that I had saved up enough money to go on.
Aside from the loan people giving out all of these loans, I think parents who cave into their child's wishes of where they want to go, is also the cause. Instead, they should be talking some sense into their graduating high school seniors.
My only advice to someone who took the route I chose would be to make sure that all the credits you take at a community college fit into the four yr. college program. of where you will be transferring to. They may all transfer, but not apply to the field of study you chose. In my case all transferred but 30 didn't apply to my field of study. This caused me to cram 3 additional years into 2 1/2 yrs. to save money, taking 23 credits in one semester. No one had told me about this possibility happening to me. Live and learn!
Magpie Wow, a desire for yet another ultra-liberal "freebie" program... color me surprised.
Mark Mc. I don't know much about the loans but I read they charge 6 % and banks get the money for nothing?
You better keep your eye out MrCharlie, I read they were thinking of making you buy Government Bonds with that fund.
Thats life. The Government always disrupts your plans. They have done it to me all my life.
Old Gent I don't agree w/canceling student debt except in special circumstances and only certain loans and I have over $60,000 in college loans. I went to county college for 2 years and then transferred to a private college in Boston to major in architecture. Unfortunately I did get very sick, had surgery, and to medically withdraw from college. Sallie Mae didn't care that I was sick and didn't earn a credit and still wanted me to repay the $20,000 loan. I understand that I had lodging, but other than that, I was sick after being in school 2 weeks and did not attend classes. For me I feel that some sort of adjustment should have been made to the loan amount, but Sallie Mae refused. I did end up transferring to another private college back in NJ (Changed major) so I did realize it was more expensive than a public college. While it really stinks to have high student loan debt that I will forever be paying down, I understand that I chose to go to 2 private colleges.
sunshinenj If people had the discipline to escape the social programming regarding the necessity of a college education, did a cost-benefit analysis of same... and exercised a bit of critical thinking, they would see the absurdity of the current higher-education paradigm.
If there is blame to go around, I can only assign a portion of it to those who took (or take) out these loans. There is a lot of effective governmental manipulation and deception behind all of this that benefits a few at the expense of many.
Also, one thing I've learned about petitions (especially online or via the US mail) is that they have about as much effect as me posting my opinion on HL. They are, however, a reasonably lucrative fundraising device.
jjmonth4 
CraftBeerBob 30 years ago, when I went to state college in NJ, it was $5000 for tuition and room and board. My son goes to state college now and it's $28000 for the same thing. Inflation didn't increase 400% during that time, but college costs did, so that's one reason student loan debt is so high.
Rich "Also, one thing I've learned about petitions is that they have about as much effect as me posting my opinion on HL"
You're telling me all those signatures collected at WhiteHouse.gov aren't binding?
I guess Mad Dog Mattis won't be getting his sleepover.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/invite-general-james-mad-dog-mattis-over-2-year-sleep-over/XcVHKck2
I didn't tell you to go to school for 4 years for a degree in Art then not find a job in your field when you graduate.
CJ. The reason kids are paying 50K a year for college is cause the Feds back the loans...if the Feds capped the loans at say 10K the kids would be paying 10K a year for tuition..lol
Disgusting what these colleges have done...imo
RU "Hope they don't cancel my 401K's debt to me."
Don't hold your breath- in today's deeply in-debt America, anything would be considered "fair" "for the cause"
http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/will-the-government-take-your-401k/5016
JeffersonRepub Of course there's"
http://studentdebtcrisis.org/
Interesting that the petition is a commercial site: " Paid for by Campaign for America's Future, Daily Kos, Democracy for America."
and
"Authorized by American Federation of Teachers, Campaign for America's Future, Courage Campaign, Daily Kos, Democracy for America, LeftAction, Project Springboard, RH Reality Check, RootsAction, Student Debt Crisis, The Nation, and Working Families."
By the by, "By signing this petition you will receive periodic updates on offers and activism from some of the organizations listed on the page. You may unsubscribe at any time."
from cancelallstudentdebt.com
Obviously an easy fix that hides the real problem and does not provide the solution to the actual problem. Not to mention penalizing anyone who paid either in full or by loan. And of course, teachers and colleges would be all for this since it's an automatic free pass to raise tuition since, "why not, they're covered."
But this petition will go no where. What is reality, and might have helped sunshine's issue noted above is as follows. And note, I think Magpie, that bulking up courses might not work anymore; my kids were charged by the credit, not the semester.
But here's what is actually happening both on FOX and in the real world: http://mediamatters.org/research/2015/03/12/fox-figures-falsely-dub-new-obama-student-aid-p/202877
mistergoogle Part of the student loan crisis is colleges having useless degrees.
SUNY Oneonta in NY has a music industry program. It's one of their bigger majors. There are almost no jobs in this field, most of the few of them go to self starters who never even went to college, or went to college for something different.
I have a few friends that went to school for this degree, and all of them work dead end jobs that they could have gotten straight out of highschool.
PenningsLandscaping Well, many parents don't want their children to be ditch-diggers so they finance graduate degrees as well. Problem is that most Masters degrees are useless without work experience. The proliferation of dead-end jobs is the biggest threat to a prosperous future. The answer is not to blindly add public no-work or little-work jobs, or to add overcompensated jobs. The answer is in the private sector to bring back better paying jobs to New Jersey. This will not be done if we remain a tax heavy state, business has and will go elsewhere. The public sector unions who continue to fight transitioning pensions to hybrid plans and the new hires to 401Ks are a big part of the problem...
iJay "The public sector unions who continue to fight transitioning pensions to hybrid plans and the new hires to 401Ks are a big part of the problem..."
How is this a BIG part of the problem to business coming back to NJ?
IMO College should be free. Not all of them, but there should absolutely be free higher education available to all.
Brown Bear, let me know when you want to write that check for me to go to college, I'd be more than happy to go on YOUR dime, because- you do realize- someone has to pay for it.
Which brings us to your definition of "free"..... I suspect you do not know where the "government's money" comes from?
What a crock. Pay your obligations. If our government could learn to stick to a budget and pay for what they already owe, then maybe I wouldn't have a problem with it but we can't afford another bloated program that will be mismanaged and have more pork tied onto it. Anyone catch 60 Min last night with SS? SMH.
MeisterNJ Agree people should pay what they agreed to pay. But Rich is right, the higher education system is broken. Why such a Huge increase in costs?
I notice one thing when touring schools with my kids, many of the rooms are like suites now. We made do with 2 in a room, bath down the hall til we were seniors, then crammed 5 into an on campus apartment. The kids don't need to be at the Ritz.
Sure that isn't accounting for all of the added expense, but it is a big change from 30 years ago. I imagine all of the technology costs have added to the bill as well, but 400% is just crazy, too much.
hktownie hey JR, I'd be happy to send you to college with my tax dollars, why wouldn't I? I'd prefer that over some other things the gov't spends on. You act as if the government pays all of it's bills with what they collect in income tax and as if you have some choice as to where your tax dollars are spent. Well they don't and you don't.
This is really BS. If you sign on the dotted line to accept this debt, then pay for it. What next, cancel mortgage debt, car debt, credit card debt too. Good lesson learned for the college crowd. Parents, don't be so agreeable when your kid wants an expensive education. Not everyone needs college either. Not everyone is college material. Start at the Community College first and then transfer to the school you want to graduate from, hopefully with the money to pay for it. No one ever asks what school you started in, they only ask where you graduated from. My daughter went to CCM, worked at the same time and transferred to Centenary. Between scholarships and working full time , around her classes, she graduated debt free and cum laude. So proud of her. It taught her the value of working, saving and achieving her goal.
justwondering they problem is the Gov't has you by the b-lls. You can't go get a student loan from anyone else, so you can't shop for the best rate. You are stuck dealing with the Fed Government which is not the best thing.
I'm not for student loan forgiveness, even as i am still paying my wife's school loans, but i am for refinancing them. The interest rates on cars and mortgages are still historically low and we are able to refinance those, so why not student loans? Why not drop the interest rate to 2%-3%?
darwin As usual, iJay places all the blame on those evil public employees..."The public sector unions who continue to fight transitioning pensions to hybrid plans and the new hires to 401Ks are a big part of the problem..."
Then again, maybe "big business" places no trust in a state where the governor continues to renege on agreements made with those same public sector unions that he (Christie) signed and promised to follow. I suspect a lot of CEOs/CFOs feel he cannot be trusted.
Gotta stop drinking that Christie Kool-Aid.
JerryG So, refinance your house or car to pay off your student loan. Nothing wrong with that.
Or, find a bank to give you a personal loan in the amount of your student loan debt. There's nothing that says you can't do that. Good luck getting it for 2-3% though.
ianimal "Part of the student loan crisis is colleges having useless degrees."
No, part of the crisis is people were stupid enough to pay 40k a year for those useless degrees
I just can't believe people think degrees still make people better than others. I mean what college won't give you a piece of paper if you shell out 40K a year? How does getting a degree making you stand out anymore?
I'm not talking about doctors, nurses, dentists, and etc because obviously their degree is something that does set them apart from others.
Nosila JerryG, this is just common sense. I don't need Christie to enlighten me on basic economic facts. Time to get back to reality or take some refresher courses in mathematics...
iJay, I certainly wouldn't EVER trust Christie (or one of his minions) to enlighten anyone with an ounce of brains on basic economic facts since all his policies have done is to make NJ worse. New Jersey, under the current regime, is just not a state Big Business feels is conducive to their economic growth.
That being said, I just don't see the relationship between your continued anti-public-employee bias and the original topic of forgiving student loans.
So it's unrealistic to expect Christie to honor the agreements he signed to refund the pension system in 2011?
Just the kind of guy we DON'T need in the White House to negotiate with foreign leaders.
At the 250k foot level the pension plan was underfunded from day one. You are talking about a 5k foot perspective. If you are a teacher, then your lack of intellect is disturbing. Hopefully your students see the truth. Most will work for private employers where such total compensation excesses are not available. Time to listen to the taxpayers rather than whine about politicians who have not funded your pension house of cards...
college costs too much for degrees that are essentially worthless in the job market
time for a major re-balancing of lifes goals, objectives and what it takes to be a happy, successful individual
if everyone has a 4 year degree, then sifting , sorting job applicants it becomes less of a differentiator, so we end up with jobs ads here in NJ asking for a "front end" associate to answer the phones, do filing, and schedule business trips and events, 4 year college degree preferred, starting rate 12 dollars per hour,
really? you need a 4 year degree to answer the phones? and file folders alphabetically?
yet since everyone is coming out with these cookie-cutter degrees, employers are requiring them for low level clerical jobs thereby reducing the value of a 4 year degree
why should someone go into 50 - 60 thousands dollars in debt to earn 12 dollars per hour?
tell me again how much the economy has improved.
BrotherDog "How does getting a degree making you stand out anymore?"
And the survey says: on average you stand out at about an additional $26,000 per year in wages earned. Post income taxes, do the breakeven on $40K per year for four years, post tax deductions. Not a great deal, but not bad still. And the advanced degrees, on average, add another $28,000 per year. Considering a two year advanced degree, even a better deal. Similar chart in the other direction for unemployment rates by the by..... Sure, we all know MBA's looking for a job or working below their degree, degrees that won't pay the best wages, but on average education does make you stand out monetarily speaking.
Yupper, someone said Chrisite.
Yes both parties have shorted pension fund payments. Christie though is special though in that he said he would make it better, targeted funds to do that, applauded himself for close to a year for being this pension hero, and then reneged and stole the money back. So sure, his actions are special when it comes to pension funded and his reputation should follow suit to his actions.
iJay, I am not and have never been a public employee, so I do not have a personal stake in the PERS. I am however a person who values integrity and (perhaps naively) expects our leaders to honor the agreements they made.
Oh, and by the way, people who think presidential-candidate Christie should honor his agreements ALSO are taxpayers, as are the myriad of public employees you continue to defame.
Once upon a time, someone noticed that college graduates usually make more money than non-graduates.
However, there is a causation problem. Is it the degree, or would the sort of people who go to college make more anyway due to advantages of wealth and family connections?
The answer is a mix, but by downplaying the second part and stressing the need to go to college over the decades, we have helped create this debt bubble while downgrading the quality and value of high school.
Many good jobs should in theory not require college, certainly not four years. But now that the system is in place where it does, it is hard to change. It does seem though that the value of college is starting to be questioned more now.
(Doctors, lawyers, engineers, need college of course.)
jd2 This country has lost sight of the fact that we will always need quality people with technical skills that you don't learn in college: auto mechanics, electricians, plumbers, and dozens of other professions spring to mind.
College education (Bachelor's degrees and post-graduate education) are certainly required for other professions (physician, engineers, educators) as the sheer volume of knowledge required, coupled with the need to develop critical thinking skills, just cannot be accomplished in less than four (or more) years. A physician, for example, needs four years of pre-med, four years of medical school, PLUS three or more years of residency in order to develop the knowledge and skills required to be a quality diagnostician.
As a society we've allowed there to be a stigma attached to not going to college that shouldn't be there. Different people choose different professions and require different levels and types of education.
What we do need to do is to return our institutions of higher education back into places where EDUCATION is the main priority and stop spending millions of dollars on sports programs, coach's salaries and constructing stadiums.
JerryG,
Fully agree, especially for state schools! They shouldn't be in the sports business.
RV
Reggie Voter Reggie,
Did you see where Vivian Stringer, the womens' basketball coach at Rutgers, has an annual salary of $700K, and was due a "performance bonus" of another $500K if they beat Seton Hall the other night?
Oh, and she wants Rutgers to spend $5 million to build a new arena for basketball.
That kind of money could help a lot of students with tuition!!
It's a disgrace.
JerryG, you're kidding yourself if you think that money would go towards tuition. Have you seen all of the construction at RU in recent years? Livingston Campus looks brand new. Downtown New Brunswick has gotten a makeover. RWJ has slowly spread everywhere it can between Somerset and French streets. It covers at least two more entire blocks than when i went to school. There will be a new Engineering mega building breaking ground this spring. Chem department just opened up a new one of their own. Southern end of College Avenue is getting a facelift. The amount and pace of building is incredible.
Meister, I'm fine with money being spent that directly benefits the education of tens of thousands of students (65,000+ in 2013). After all, a university is supposed to be about education. Modern facilities are needed to advance the education process, especially the sciences and engineering with their required laboratory facilities.
But a basketball program that benefits at best several dozen students out of that entire student body????
That's a waste of millions of dollars.
As a graduate of Rutgers, I was amazed at how much they've built up the campus. In 1993 (my graduation year), tuition and room/board was $9K/yr. It's now $25K/year. My starting salary (computer programmer) was $32K/yr with a max student loan debt of $36K.
I ask, how many undergrads graduate and get a job starting at $100K per year these days?
The real crime is that tuition has outpaced salary growth and inflation. Let's not even get into the other BS fees they charge students:
- $300 commitment (really, you have to pay a fee to tell a school you're attending?)
- Fees to declare your status for graduation - a friend's son has to pay $100 to declare himself eligible for graduation
emaxxman An arena benefits more than just the sports teams. They hold lots of concerts and functions (Saw quite a few concerts at the RAC in my time at RU) that raise money for the groups that schedule the events. So it's not benefiting just 'several dozen students'. Not saying if it's good one way or another, fair, or even needed, just pointing out that it does indeed benefit the student body in other ways and is not as narrow as you make it out to be.
Of course you need to update facilities, expand, etc. Does it all need to be done in the span of 5 years? That's what I have an issue with. Spending seems reckless and isn't doing the students any favors as far as keeping tuition reasonable.
"After all, a university is supposed to be about education."
The primary goal of a university isn't to educate any more than the primary goal of a hospital is to heal the sick. They both primarily exist to make money. Education and health are merely the services they're selling.
In the case of the University, they make money by attracting as many tuition-paying students as they can. Updated facilities help in that regard, as do successful sports programs.
If their women's basketball team's success attracts 20 out of state students to attend Rutgers who wouldn't have otherwise, they've made up her $700,000 salary right there.
I can echo ianimal's notion that sports programs can draw students from a personal perspective.
I attended Montclair State on a full scholarship for one year. I decided to transfer to Rutgers for a variety of reasons, but a major consideration was wanting to go to a larger school with a football team. I saw the football team as indicative of having more fun, more of a "college experience." It did not even matter that the team was awful.
I ended up going from having my education fully funded, to paying Rutgers thousands for my four years. I am not sure how many other students make a decision in this way, but I would imagine that it is not insignificant.
I also feel a twinge of regret each month when my student loan payment draws each month, for what it's worth.
CR37 
kb2755 Daughter graduating from TCNJ tonight! Yeah!!!!!! Going a 5th year too for her Masters.
Debt, yes, but hey, it's our responsibility. You want to go to college, you pay for it. No freebies. She did get a few scholarships, so that helped. So proud. Summa cum laude!
botheredbyuu2 "You want to go to college, you pay for it." Yeah, I said that too once I figured I couldn't get a deal :>) What, running straight, no real world, why I worked my way through my Masters old school :>)
And I really hate to burst the bubble, but when all is said and done and you are so, so, so much poorer that's when you notice your cash flow didn't even get better after the Master's is done. It's a cruel world.
Seriously, congrats on making the grades and while it's not always immediate, in the long run it's almost always worth it both in money and happiness.
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