Convince me...

Dear Sarah,

Okay, so I know you support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act.

I gotta be honest.  I don't.

Let me be clear.  I have over 50K left in student loans for my 4 years of undergraduate tuition and 3 years of graduate tuition.  I pay almost $300 a month in student loans, and I have been for five years now.  And I will for the next 30 years if I keep making the minimum payments each month.  My husband and I both work in education.  We could personally use to have my 50K forgiven.  But I don't think I, or anyone else, deserves it.

Here is why:  The money is spent.  Books were bought. Professors were paid.  This isn't about whether or not colleges charge to much money (I think they do, but then again I think most instructors are underpaid, so where is that money going?), this is about whether I made the decision to take on this debt when I went to school.  And I did.  I OWE this money.  It's too late for me to say "I didn't know better."  Regardless of how much I regret some of my decisions (like not going into the military and using the GI Bill instead, or getting my first two years of gen. ed. requirements out of the way at a community college, or not going out of state for graduate school), I made them.  I was over 18.  I was a consenting adult.  Ultimately, no one is responsible for those decisions but me.

Even if I agreed to give back my diplomas in trade for the 50K, I can't give back the knowledge or the experience.  I can't give back what I have gained by my college experience.  There is no repossessing my brain.

Also, I think of people I know who didn't go to college, and cite lack of funding as their reason.  Is it fair to them?  Just like it wasn't fair (in my opinion) to bail out people who irresponsibly bought big beautiful mansions they couldn't afford on middle class salaries while my husband and I sat in our two bedroom rental because we were responsible with our money, I don't think it's fair to those people who chose not to take on thousands of dollars of debt and have been making their living off of high school diplomas only.  Yes, I pay a brand new car payment every month in student loan payments, but I also tend to have a higher income than most of my high-school-education-only friends.  (Although, not all of them.  In fact, some of my "wealthiest" friends only have high school degrees.  But that is not is not the point of this blog...)

When I see someone post a status on FB like:

I think "Uh, how about DON'T GO OUT OF STATE!"  It blows my mind that even with the current crisis, there are people KNOWINGLY taking on more than they can comfortable pay back on the hope and prayer that someone else will bail them out.

Let me share some advice with you...  nobody freaking cares where you went to college.  I made a HUGE mistake of going out of state!  I wish 32 year old Amber could go back and slap 22 year old Amber and say "Dude, VA schools are just as good, and much cheaper than going to that Midwest school.  No one is impressed but your dad."  The only thing that I don't regret about going out of state was that I met Superman while in grad school out here. Without that 50K, I probably wouldn't have him or Thing 1 and Thing 2.  That I would never change.

What I do wish would change...I wish college students received better financial counseling.  I wish someone gave me a more realistic view of the money I'd be making once I graduated.  And a more realistic view of what 30-something year old Amber's budget might look like with a mortgage, a car payment, and two kids PLUS a student loan payment.  To 18 year old Amber making 9K a year waiting tables and living with her parents (and gas only .89/gallon), my current salary sounded like a shit-ton of money.  OF COURSE I didn't think my student loan payment would be a big deal.  But in the end, I went to college.  I got my degrees.  And now I have to man-up and pay the piper.  It sucks, but that is life.

But again, as someone who pays nearly $3600 a year in student loan payments, I am eager to see if there is something you can say about the subject to in anyway change my mind.  Because I'd be more than happy to be rid of this debt now!

Why

Because our country bails out all kinds of businesses and industries--why not help us out?

This bill still requires payments, on time for ten full years before the forgiveness.  I think if you've paid on your debt for ten long years you ought to have this debt forgiven.  It's not like I bought clothes or beer with this student loan money. I bought an education.  I served in the Military, guess what?  The GI Bill covered only a portion of my education...that's it.  If going to war for your country and it's freedom doesn't qualify you to have your educational debt forgiven, I don't know what would.

At the very least, one should be able to have their student loan debt discharged in bankruptcy. Hell, you can have gambling debt discharged under bankruptcy. 

The forgiveness comes with a cap, around $45,000 and it's a one time thing. 

Here's one argument

The government can spend more money on education to help US citizens and pay for it by spending less on military programs that help foreigners and Hansen Clarke's bill allows Congress the means to do just that.

and another

Public schools like High Schools are subsidized by your fellow citizens via property taxes. Why should higher education be any different?--If you've got the grades, you should get continued education.

Higher Education is Important to the future of America.

The student loan forgiveness acts as an immediate economic stimulus.

How about a program like AmeriCorps, where college graduates volunteer; say 52 hours a year for ten years to pay down their federal student loans?  Sounds like a win/win to me, the community gets more volunteers, the volunteers have a sense of purpose and belonging, the community can work together to fulfill two needs: reducing the debt of individuals along with sprucing up our communities??

Dear Sarah,

I should read more about the forgiveness program being proposed.  I was unaware of some of the stipulations you mentioned.

Actually, there is already a program kind of similar to this called the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007.  Did you know about this?  Any public servant (public school teachers, fed & state workers, etc) that makes 120 consecutive payments will automatically have the balance of their loan forgiven (basically 10 years of payments).  How do I know this?  Because I tried to enroll in it.  I used to teach public school and now I work for a state college, so I figured I was exactly who this bill was for...  But I soon realized this income-based repayment bill was not all it was cracked up to be.

When I tried to enroll in the program, I was working full time at a state university, and my husband was a part-time substitute teacher (as he was transitioning returning to work after being a stay-at-home dad).  It turns out that to enroll in the program, they base your payments on your income...10% of your gross annual family income.  So my $275/month payment was going to almost double to about $475/month.

First of all, uh $475 a month?!?!

Second of all, I did the math and $475/month x 120 payments = 57K!!  So I wasn't really saving anything!!  All I was doing was making double the payments to pay my loan off faster (I only pay 3.5%).  Hell, I don't need to enroll in any program for that.  If I could afford to make double payments, I'd be making double payments already.

Now that Layne is back to work full time, I shudder to think of what our new payment would be...around $675 a month.  Heck, I could have my loans paid off in about 6 years making those payments.

I do like the idea of the AmeriCorp program trading volunteer hours for paying down loans.  I wasn't aware of this, but would be interested in learning more.  Because heck, I currently volunteer 2 hours a week for free at the local homeless shelter.

But I am curious what you thought about my point regarding the unfairness of forgiving loans of college educated people when there are lots of people out there who would have gone to college if they could have afforded it, but chose not to take on the mountains of debt.  Do you not think forgiving our debts is unfair to them?  They are tax payers too.

Dear Amber,

Of course it's unfair to forgive our student loan debt to those who didn't attend college because they couldn't afford it.  But my opinion is that life is not fair and sometimes you come out the side of favor and sometimes you don't--that is life, suck it up.  There are lots of things that we taxpayers pay for that I don't like, but I try not to complain, you never know where someone else's journey has led them and most of the time it's not my job to have an opinion on the matter, just to support folks who need the support.

Dear Amber,

Instead of saying "why" relieve student loan debt, I think of it as "why the hell not?"