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Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

newyorker.com

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Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#31

Post by HarryHirsch »

Zigurd wrote: post #14
krschultz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can start garnishing your wages, so unless you never want to hold a job again, creditors will get their money.

You can leave the country. Most of the people deeply in debt with degrees or training that won't pay the debt would find, for example, teaching English in China a relatively comfortable living. If you have the imagination to look beyond Europe, finding a gig that's better than debt slavery isn't too difficult.

The demographics targeted by predatory for-profit colleges could easily teach English in China? That's absurd!

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#32

Post by mikeash »

vinceguidry wrote: post #20
mattmanser wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She got ripped off by a school, so should now give up her dreams of becoming a nurse. Great argument.

No, she should start a career in whatever field she's best positioned to start one in. Oh is that nursing? I wonder why.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc is supposed to be a warning, not a guide!

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#33

Post by iopq »

sheepdestroyer wrote: post #21

A lot of countries have a free post secondary education system : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_education#Partial_list_of... It always astonish me to think it can be seen as normal, even more equitable, to require people to get so huge debts before even being trained to work.

To pay for someone's education someone else must be taxed. Why is it better to tax a working person for every student's education instead of just having that person pay for the exact education they received?

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#34

Post by jessaustin »

jobu wrote: post #25

It's odd that they don't mention the reason Corinthian is shutting down so many colleges - http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/07/08/329550897/the-collaps... A relative of mine works there and said they were about to be sued by the Department of Education over fraud in their student loan department. The settlement forced the company to sell or close all of it's colleges and no senior management or administrative staff i…

...pretty unlikely...

Eh, it's not "real" money. Students will have debts forgiven when it's politically expedient to do so.

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#35

Post by vinceguidry »

whafro wrote: post #17
vinceguidry wrote: post #7

It's a bit disingenuous to claim that you shouldn't pay back any of the debt incurred in earning your degree because the educational program was worthless when you're still seeking a career in the field requiring that degree. I agree she shouldn't have to pay all of the debt, but surely the degree isn't totally worthless.

Only if the degree is the sole factor in getting the career she desired. If that's the case, I can send you a degree from WhafroU via PDF for a tidy sum within an hour. Get in touch, folks!

You absolutely should start selling paper degrees if your 'students' can actually get jobs with them, as the person in the article was able to.

I don't think people really understand what they're saying when they say that people shouldn't have to pay back these loans. The loans are going to get repayed, it's just a question of who. You can't take it out of the defunct college, those people, and that money, are gone. Basically you're saying that taxpayers should foot the bill. You want to pay the government back out of your own pocket? Because that's what this means.

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#36

Post by ChainsawSurgery »

cjslep wrote: post #30
ChainsawSurgery wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doesn't threaten the rest of the economy in the same way that housing loans did I dunno about that - it's probably just a lot more insidious and less panic-y. Adults repaying student loans aren't spending that money on other things. If you're paying $300 a month to Sallie Mae, that's $300 you're not spending on: 1) Savings/retirement/etc 2) Goods and services 3) Capital investment 4) Etc. Given the compounding natu…

$300 a month seems low. I went to North Carolina State University, generally regarded as a cheaper school (compared to neighboring UNC Chapel Hill or Duke) for a solid quality engineering education as an in-state student. I graduated after four years in 2013 and my monthly payment to Navient (formerly Sallie Mae) is easily triple that.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. I'm guessing you have easily a small mortgage in student loan debt =\, which is probably not that uncommon these days.

(if not you're totally getting screwed on interest rates)

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#37

Post by iopq »

ChainsawSurgery wrote: post #26
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #16

Is this the start of the student-loan bubble bursting? From what I have read student loan debt, despite it's size, doesn't threaten the rest of the economy in the same way that housing loans did. Hopefully that is the case.

> doesn't threaten the rest of the economy in the same way that housing loans did I dunno about that - it's probably just a lot more insidious and less panic-y. Adults repaying student loans aren't spending that money on other things. If you're paying $300 a month to Sallie Mae, that's $300 you're not spending on: 1) Savings/retirement/etc 2) Goods and services 3) Capital investment 4) Etc. Given the compounding natu…

Yes, but when going to college a lot of college employees got paid using that money. Current students paying money to the college is stimulating the economy, while former students paying the debt off is shrinking the economy.

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#38

Post by redblacktree »

iopq wrote: post #33
sheepdestroyer wrote: post #21

A lot of countries have a free post secondary education system : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_education#Partial_list_of... It always astonish me to think it can be seen as normal, even more equitable, to require people to get so huge debts before even being trained to work.

To pay for someone's education someone else must be taxed. Why is it better to tax a working person for every student's education instead of just having that person pay for the exact education they received?

Because we all benefit by living in a well-educated society. It's the same argument with public schools at lower levels. Would you advocate that these also be made exclusively private?

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#39

Post by bkeroack »

sheepdestroyer wrote: post #21

A lot of countries have a free post secondary education system : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_education#Partial_list_of... It always astonish me to think it can be seen as normal, even more equitable, to require people to get so huge debts before even being trained to work.

A sensible system would be one like Brazil's (and possibly other countries): free education at public universities for those who qualify on the stringent entrance exams along with a system of private universities for those who don't make it and can pay for it.

This would allow all deserving students a high quality, free education while limiting the amount of waste and degree inflation that would result from a completely free university system.

Re: Students refuse to pay back loans to failed for-profit college

#40

Post by littletimmy »

Good.

This bubble has to burst. The college education system in this country has gone completely insane. The cost of a year's worth of education is now $60000, when the cost for comparable universities in the UK is $10000 and in Germany is $0. Just make community college + state universities free for everyone to attend, and we should have no more problem with this debt nonsense anymore.

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