Tag: student loan

STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS

On By TonyIn economy, Education1 Comment

Recently the radical US Supreme Court has again slapped down Americans trying establish financial freedom. The reasoning behind it (although no HARM was ever shown) comes down to some people chose not to go to college so therefore would not be eligible for benefits. There are some people in my generation who do not feel it is fair that a portion of loans are forgiven to people today while they had to pay off their loans.

  • In 2020-2021 dollars, one year’s college tuition in 1963 cost just over $4,300. In 2020, it cost nearly $14,000.[1]
  • The total cost of a year of college was about $10,600 in 1963. In 2020, it was almost $26,000.Note Reference [1]
  • Across all types of schools, the cost of college has increased more than 143%, or 2.4 times, between 1963 and 2020.
  • Compared to other school types, four-year public colleges saw the steepest price hikes from 2000-2020, jumping from roughly $13,000 a year to over $21,000 annually.Note Reference [1]
  • Attending a four-year public college costs 64% more than it did 20 years ago.
  • Attending a two-year public college costs 59% more than it did 20 years ago.
  • Across all schools, tuition spikes are driving increases in the overall cost of college.
  • From 2000-2020, average tuition and fees rose by 69%, from $8,082 to $13,677 a year.

YES, education is expensive. But the cost of ignorance cannot be measured. Many people complain that schools should be more like training grounds to learn a subject. Schools should be a place where you learn to think and reason.

I had the joy or running into one of my former gymnasts while I was down in New Orleans for a convention. She is currently a History professor at Xavier University. When she told me about the debt she had been carrying for years I was floored. It was unimaginable.

Here is her story:

I Had All of My Student Loans Forgiven. You Might Be Eligible Too.

Elizabeth Manley

I’m not sure about the rest of you, but up until recently I figured I was going to die with my colossal student loan debt. It is possible I have fantasized asking someone to print out the details of the never-decreasing debt and send them along with me into the afterlife, just to be sure they attached to no one else. And I’ve become an expert at ignoring all the news swirling about the failures of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, or the veritable uselessness of $10,000 in loan dismissals. It was just all too depressing. Today, though, I am asking everyone who works in the worlds of non-profit, public sector, and higher ed, including ALL teachers, to tune in, even if just for a minute. There is a light – it is faint – but it’s there.

About 30 years ago I made a decision based on the best information I had – mind you, I was 17, but I was a good student, and, I thought, conscientious. I elected to go to the most academically prestigious university I had been admitted to – the University of Pennsylvania. I was pretty stubborn, so when I made that decision there was little that could have moved me, including the high price tag. Not even when my father handed me his income tax return and a blank FAFSA, instructing me that if I was going to take on that debt, I should learn to understand it. Not even seeing that my first year’s tuition, room & board, and fees would total just under $26,000, despite the fair bit it was reduced after Penn processed the FAFSA. I had firmly decided that the financial burdens would be worth the education and the prestige I would gain with an Ivy League degree, particularly given my parents had not gone to college themselves.

My four years at Penn were world-changing in personal and intellectual ways, helping me recognize my love for historical thinking and clarifying to me that despite being a first-generation college student I could pursue a PhD. Still, all that self-realization came at the cost of about $80k in student loan debt – a debt that alternately terrified me and pushed me to pretend it wasn’t there. For a few years after my B.A. I worked and paid off some of the loans as best I could with entry-level job salaries. A few years later, now in grad school at Tulane and feeling as thought it would be an uphill battle to ever pay that large sum off, not to mention realizing there was no way I would be able to do the required research to complete my doctoral degree without additional funds, I added to that abstract pile of loans multiple summers in a row to conduct field research. By the time I was done, the debt exceeded $100k.

Today, I have been teaching at Xavier University of Louisiana – a private, Catholic, HBCU – since 2008. Xavier salaries in the humanities fall at the lower end of our ranking below the 60th percentile nationally for IIA institutions. In these past 14 years I added to that debt – thank you credit cards – to finish my first book and generally uphold my scholarly agenda. For the first several years of teaching I continued to work as a bartender, as I had through much of my undergraduate and graduate experience, simply to make ends meet.

Around six years ago I was able to secure an annual base of research funding, which has allowed me, finally, to stop funding my own research (aka, my job) and start saving for a house down payment. I also discovered that, for reasons unclear to me, mortgage companies don’t count student loan in the same way as other debt. Since then I have been extremely lucky to secure several amazing research fellowships, travel extensively for my new book project, and buy that home. I was also just promoted to full professor which came with a substantial raise, although somehow it is the equivalent of a mentee’s starting salary as a TT assistant professor at an elite northeastern university.

Meanwhile my still-very-large student loan debt continued to loom over me. I assumed I would never pay it off, just keep making those monthly payments, which would only increase commensurate to any raises I received. In the decade and a half I paid on these loans, the total debt only increased. Being single and without children, my monthly payments sat at about 15% of my take home – which more or less squares with the statement that IDR plans cap out at 20% of discretionary income. I knew it wouldn’t transfer to anyone else when I died (phew) but I assumed I’d be paying that percentage or higher, depending on changes at FedLoan, until then.

This week that changed. Although I had enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program a decade ago (as soon as I heard about it, but several years after I had begun paying off the loans), I never thought the balance would REALLY be forgiven. I had heard all the horror stories of people enrolling in the program, being diligent about payments for the full ten years, then being summarily removed, no relief in sight. I was not optimistic, and I basically tried not to think about it, even pushing my enrollment date from my mind. But about a year ago, knowing that some reforms had been made in the program under Biden, I decided to face the music and see if I was close to the required 120 payments. I made a bunch of phone calls, refiled my employment verification, and waited.

Several months ago I got notification that, unfortunately, I had not yet made the required number of payments. I was only at 94. Although I knew I had made more than that, I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to fight to get those “missing” payments recognized. Or that they just wouldn’t get counted, and we would continue this cycle forever. I added “call MyFedLoan” to my to-do list and proceeded to ignore that particular entry for weeks.

Around mid-May I got another notification from the federal student loan portal. When I finally clicked through to get the message (yes, it took several days because I assumed it was more frustrating news), I got this massive shock:

Congratulations! On Oct. 6, 2021, the Department of Education announced a change to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program rules for a limited time that allows you to get credit for payments you’ve made on loans that wouldn’t normally qualify for PSLF. As a result of this limited PSLF waiver (StudentAid.gov/pslfwaiver), we conducted another review of your Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) & Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) Certification & Application (PSLF Form) and payment history. We have determined that you have successfully made the required 120 monthly payments in order to have all or a portion of your loans listed below forgiven.

Reading on, I saw my outstanding balance: $0. I was in total disbelief. Wanting human reassurance I called customer service, just to get them to verify out loud the information contained in the letter. Apparently, it really was forgiven. Over the past few days I’ve tried to process what this means to me. First, it gives me the smallest bit of hope that as a society we might be able to amend the way we finance higher education and begin to value the ambition of all students – not just the ones who want to go into finance. I would never have been able to see myself in the world of academia without pushing into that purportedly refined air and being told by my professors at Penn that I belonged there. Having my student loan debt forgiven means we might have a chance to continue diversifying the areas of professional life that have traditionally been gate-kept by money, power, and prestige.

However, it also means that 15% of my take home can now be put back into the economy in productive ways – whether that is in supporting organizations I care about, building my home equity, or even just saving for my retirement. I can also worry a little less about how I will finance that retirement, which is fairly important for a single, childless person, but also critical for opening up the profession to new, fresh generations of teacher-scholars.

I wanted to share my story because an astounding number of people do not know about this program. At lunch the other day with a half dozen university professors many of them had never heard of it, or only barely knew its general purpose. In the days since my letter I have told my story to multiple friends and colleagues; a shocking percentage assumed that the program didn’t apply to them because they worked at a private college or university, or because their loans are not being serviced by the federal government. Unless you work for a for-profit institution, you qualify. And even if your student loans are handled by private servicers you can consolidate under the government and get those back payments counted under the limited waiver, at least until October 2022. As public sector professionals and university leaders we must to be able to help each other with these issues, both for our collective good and to better press for an improved financial landscape for our students and future generations of public sector workers.

Every possible eligible person should get into this program now while this limited waiver is still in place. If you haven’t enrolled in PSLF and work for a 501(c)3, get signed up immediately. Send in your employment certification form and ask MyFedLoan for a count of your payments. Wait in the customer service queue on the phone to speak to an agent (I know, the worst, but really. . . ) and have them walk you through the steps to ensure you are enrolled and repaying through a certified program. If not, ask them to process the limited waiver and get on a certified repayment plan, consolidating your loans serviced by private companies with FedLoan if you need to. Recertify annually by sending in the employment form and regularly triggering the count. There are a number of good pieces online about how to be persistent in this process. But make it a priority over the next few months. This program has been failing for so long – we must take advantage of this window and get as much debt forgiven as possible.

Ultimately, as we know of late in truly embodied ways, how we value public sector and care-work is a matter of collective survival and yet it is woefully undervalued. If you work in education or the non-profit sector, you are using your education to help build a better society. You did not choose your career path because it was going to set you up for a comfortable life financially, but because you have a passion to care for others in some particular capacity. Isn’t that enough? Should we be saddled with this massive debt – for many of us a debt taken on at a time that such a thing was just what you had to do to “get ahead”? Wouldn’t it be better if we could reform the system so that we can train teachers and professors and social workers and non-profit leaders – and not have them always debilitatedly pondering how they will pay the bills? As an educator I want my students to be able to make decisions about their lives based on their skills, interests, and abilities, and matching those to potential career paths. I want them to consider work that contributes to a more just and humane society, no matter how they conceive it. What I desperately fear is that these decisions are becoming more and more dependent on whether and how much debt 17-year-olds think they might or might not be able to carry for the rest of their lives.

I believe we must continue to press for reform in the way this country deals with higher education financing. Opting out of college as my parents did is becoming an increasingly less viable choice. Even trade and specialized training schools are expensive, and we should be finding ways to allow more students access to university and jobs training, not less. We need to set our future generations up for success, not crippling debt or, worse, crippling (impossible) choices.

Reforming PSLF and forgiving student debt is a start, but we have so much more to do.

The Not-So-Hidden Reason For Republicans’ Student Loan Anger

On By TonyIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Student loan forgiveness was supposed to be a good thing. It would end debt for millions and help families drowning under massive payments. So why are some Republicans so mad?


By Stephen A. Crockett Jr.

Are you wondering why many Republicans are upset that President Joe Biden just canceled up to $20,000 in student loan debt for those who desperately need it? Well, you might be forgetting one of the major tenets of white supremacy. Let’s take a walk.

You see, before Trump, Republicans were considered the camp of the conservative Christian. Many still had their racist beliefs, but they were shrouded in policy and toned-down hate speech. Those who openly held such prejudiced racial views were considered outliers to the upstanding fiscally responsible right.

But there came a time when everything changed, and the party of “less federal government involvement” became the party of “big racism.” Veteran GOP strategist Stuart Stevens believes the tipping point was in 2015, “when Trump, then the leading Republican presidential candidate, called for a ban on Muslim travelers to the United States,” according to a 2020 interview with Mother Jones.

Stevens noted that if the Republican Party didn’t want to be associated with this racist, xenophobic, style of governing then, Reince Priebus, the then-chair of the Republican National Committee, “should have declared that the GOP did not support such bigotry and staked out a moral position.” Sure, Trump may have still won the election, but the GOP would’ve been on record as shunning this type of rhetoric. Instead, the party towed the line and kept its mouth shut. 

Stevens argues that if the intrinsic, core values of the Republican Party weren’t racist, then how could they succumb so quickly to the racist values of Trump in just three or four years? What was once a taboo position to hold in the Grand Ole Party had now become the way.

I know what you’re thinking: What does any of this have to do with student loan forgiveness?

Well, one of the tenets of racism is that the white race ― simply based on skin color alone ― is the dominant race. Conveniently tied into racism is the idea of white supremacy, which also argues that the white race is the dominant race because of its fairer skin tone. 

Yes, that was the early definition when things were simpler, and Black people didn’t want crazy stuff, like their freedom and voting rights and access to any water fountain they wished. White supremacy has evolved, though. It has morphed into two factions: One is systemic racism, where the system does the dirty work and becomes both the hand and the whip. The other is white tears. White tears are the hot, angst-filled, eye sweat of racists who can’t believe that poor people are being helped. White supremacy hates poor people. It loathes them. Just look at Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. He’s one of the richest members of Congress with a net worth of $34 million, and that’s not counting the coins of his wife, economist Elaine Chao, who served on Trump’s cabinet. McConnell’s home state continuously shows up on the poorest states in America list. It ranked 6th this year.

Never forget that McConnell, along with the rest of his Senate Republicans, refused to vote for the American Rescue Plan, which, he often called, “widly out of proportion” despite the immediate relief to his constituents. Also, voting against the plan didn’t stop McConnell from bragging about the huge boon Kentuckians would receive. 

“Not a single member of my party voted for it,” McConnell noted at an event in his home state, according to The Washington Post. “I didn’t vote for it. But you’re going to get a lot more money. Cities and counties in Kentucky are getting close to seven or $800 million. If you add up the total amount that’ll come into our state ― $4 billion ― that’s twice what we sent in last year.”

It would seem to anyone with a compass and a dictionary that maybe Mitch McConnell isn’t the answer to Kentucky’s poverty problem. He’s rich, while his constituents are poor, and more importantly, he’s fine with that, and shockingly so are Kentuckians. McConnell has spent every year in Congress since he was first voted in….in…wait for it…1984! And, unless he stops running for office, he will probably be there until he retires. 

Here’s why, and yes, it’s the same reason that many Republicans are upset with student loan forgiveness: The other side of white dominance is cruelty. There is a collective camaraderie from those on the right in the suffering of those on the other side. For those Republicans who’ve been complaining, they understand the objective isn’t just to win, it’s to ensure that all other races lose. And I’m not talking running up the score, I’m talking slamming the ball on the 50-yard line and dancing. I’m talking about berating the cheerleaders and spray painting “Loser” on the team’s bus. It’s why Reps. Majorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.) couldn’t see the hypocrisy in the white tears they shed after learning that people who make less than $75,000 a year were going to receive some financial relief. Thankfully, the White House Twitter account was happy to call them out with several “this you?” tweets.

We mustn’t underestimate that a good portion of the white tears shed after Biden’s historic announcement also came from the jealousy of not being given another tax break. Because Republicans actually love welfare ― as long as it favors them. They enjoyed four years of handouts under Trump and never complained. Hell, why would they? They were winning. 

“I don’t hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires,” Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), told George Stephanopoulos, on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday morning program.

“Suddenly when we do something for working people, it is a terrible idea,” he said.

But let’s not forget that two things can be true at the same time. Yes, Republicans are upset because America’s poor got a break that they didn’t, and yes, this is totally a political move, and I’m not mad at it. I’ve been waiting for a more aggressive and petty Democratic Party to emerge after four years of Republican domination, and I can’t lie, I like what I’m seeing. There is no playbook as to how to govern, and Republicans took off the white gloves of civility ages ago. It’s time that the Democratic Party stop fighting for the undecided moderate who doesn’t exist, and play to their base. It’s long been time for Democrats to abandon decorum and get into the mud with the rest of America. It’s time for the White House Twitter account to call out the hypocrisy of those who can’t stop whining about what they didn’t win. If this is the direction of the Democratic Party, throwing a possible $20,000 off the insurmountable monster that is student debt and Twitter-checking all of those who received Paycheck Protection Program loans and had them forgiven, then I’m here for it. 

I think some of those people who are perplexed by the response of those who want student loan borrowers to struggle under the unforgiving weight of tremendous debt forget that one of the intrinsic tenets of white supremacy is that the other must suffer. It’s not so much that they win, it’s also that you lose. It’s why a majority of white voters voted against their own self-interest to elect Donald Trump. It’s why white women who have had abortions don’t want other women to have access to them. It’s why Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis is so popular ― he’s the wielder of the uneven wand. 

Never forget that white tears are not the authentic cries from someone in pain, they are the incensed weeping of those who believe that they aren’t just supposed to win ― they are destined to. And it pains them to know that someone other than themselves might be receiving help.