Student loans are quickly becoming the next big bubble that could pop sometime in the future – especially when even the richer members of our country are starting to squeal “uncle” when they realize just how much debt they’ve accrued. Recently released federal data shows that families earning around $94,535 to $205,335 a year saw… Read more »
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Canada’s Rural Medical Practitioners Get Loan Forgiveness; Nearly Half of Ours Graduate with Six-Digit Debt
Canada’s government announced on August 5 that family doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners that choose to work in rural communities with populations of 50,000 or less will be eligible for partial student loan forgiveness in 2013. In the meantime, 49% of our own American medical graduates will graduate $100,000 or more in debt. Their counterparts… Read more »
Should Student Loans be Abolished in the First Place?
In our previous post, we discussed a few points on why the government should not pull itself away from the student loan industry. Here is the other side of that argument: Grants are Enough to Cover Low-Income Families The whole point here hinges on who is qualified for student aid. Critics of federal loans note… Read more »
A Few Key Student Loan Statistics to Wrap Your Head Around
OMB Watch, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transparency, accountability and democratic participation in government, has released list of statistics highlighting the progression of student loans throughout American history.1 Key points include: Tripling of tuition in private institutions ($10,144 average in 1981 compared to $28,500 average in 2011-2012) Quadrupling of tuition in public institutions ($2,242 average… Read more »
Your Student Loans Are Ripe for the “Political” Picking
Okay, so interest rate cuts for federal student loans were extended for one more year. This is undoubtedly a good thing for America’s students battered by a weak job market, but are the people responsible for these cuts really interested in your future? The recent student loan bill (which included increased budget for transportation infrastructure)… Read more »
The True Costs of a Watered-Down Education
Steve Postrel, in a recent post on the StrategyProfs.net1, argues that the reason too many students seek degrees and get into debt is because high school just doesn’t offer the same quality of education that it used to. Postrel points out that the “dumbing down” of education in America over the last decades forces students… Read more »
U.S. ED Data: For-Profit Colleges Worst in Preparing Students for Jobs
If you ever thought that for-profit colleges viewed their students as walking cash-cows instead of potential workers, then you could probably be right. A recent study of 3,695 educational programs in 1,336 institutions was conducted by the United States Education Department (ED).1 The results shows that for-profit colleges ranked among the worst in preparing students… Read more »
Student Loans is More Expensive – Even if Interest Rates Stay at 3.4%
Students, universities and politicians around America may be eagerly waiting for a ruling that will extend student loan interest rate cuts by one more year, but few people are paying attention to other ways by which students will be forced to shoulder more of the expenses on their loans. Take for example subsidized loans for… Read more »
Slightly More Cash at Hand for Pell Grants in School Year ‘13-‘14
An $85 increase in maximum Pell grant funding1 may not sound much when you need thousands of dollars to obtain a degree, but it’s better than nothing. Those that qualify for Pell grants will see the maximum amount go up from $5,550 to $5,635 in the school-year of 2013 to 2014. This measure was passed… Read more »
Why the Government Must NOT Exit the Student Loan Industry
A professor from Ohio University, Richard Vedder, suggests that the government get out of student loans altogether1 and just focus on more grants for low-income students. Sounds good on paper, but relying too heavily on grants adds a lot of problems to the equation: Short-Term Shock on Government Budget The first and most significant effect… Read more »