Please tell me how this fixes the problem?? The situation of government loans funding education with low job prospects for an exorbitant cost still exists. Fix the problem or continue to relive the consequences for the next generations.
For all the folk who were talking about (a) Endowments, (b) the minuscule fraction of students who go to elite private universities, (c) major choice, etc. Princeton just announced that it will be FREE to attend Princeton for any family earning less that $100,000 per year (full tuition and room and board). Aggressive financial aid has always been in place, but they will extend this aid up to $150,000 in income. (Obviously, thereafter, aid still exists, it simply won’t be free/as heavily reduced.) Princeton has the highest endowment per student in the country. Look for other wealthy schools to match this very shortly (almost all of the top schools have similar programs already, just a question of where the income cutoff is).
The biggest issue with the student loan crisis right now remains Public/State universities and community colleges, where the vast majority (75%+) of all students go.
Mr. Khanna gives away his progressive goal in a single sentence: "[We should] recognize that an adequate education is a right, not a privilege." We've seen this movie before. "Adequate" health care should be a right, not a privilege. Since these are "rights," they must be provided by government. And there are only two ways to do this: We must either: (1) collect money through taxes; or (2) increase our national debt. There are two problems with raising taxes: (1) People resist paying them, both legally through their representatives and illegally; and (2) By reducing people's disposable income and their willingness to work, taxes lower economic growth. The result of all this is clear: (1) We keep increasing our debt, placing it on the back of future generations; (2) We shift decision-making from consumers to government bureaucrats who make decisions based on politics, rather than efficiency, thereby raising costs; and (3) Ultimately, since we can't raise enough money through either taxes or deficits, we end up starving the bureaucratically bloated systems we built. This is the "progressive" prescription for economic decline.
There has never been a better argument to teach economics and finance alongside reading, writing, and math, than this bailout. It has been in the works by the Dems for decades. It really is a true paradox.
Every time I read an article in Common Sense, I am astonished and grateful for the quality of journalism it demonstrates. This is a great pro/con article with well-articulated points on either side, and it stimulates further thought and consideration. Thanks, again, Bari.
No poor people are going to pay taxes to pay the debts of six-figure income earners. That, Mr. Scott, is total BS, and you know it. Which party is going to raise taxes on the poor? The democrats are captured and captivated by modern monetary theorists and theory. Are you repbulicans going to tax the poor? If you can't present better arguments, please don't bother at all. Dave P.
Leftism, leftism, leftism. Let me count the ways...
"While canceling student loan debt is key to resolving the current crisis, it does not fix the underlying problems that led to the debt crisis. The way to do this is to recognize that an adequate education is a right, not a privilege."
Translation: We have the right to your labor and your wealth. We want to learn and you must be forced to teach us.
"With so many Americans searching for educational opportunities after high school, K-12 should be extended to pre-K-14 or K-16, with opportunities to attend either trade school or college."
Translation: Teachers unions need more money and that should be mandated at a federal level. Job skills don't get taught in school, this is a ploy, and everyone knows it.
"China is churning out millions of electricians, tradesmen, engineers, and scientists by paying for their education. Why do we lag so far behind?"
Answer: Have you been to a small college in China? I have. It's ridiculously barebones! Students clean up after themselves and live in barracks, and when they want to have a good time they go study, play video games, or skate on natural ponds. At that one place, anyway. I'm not an expert, but "forgiving" billions in largesse to luxury resort colleges in America is the stupidest, most regressive nonsense ever. Make them cut their own grass if they want a handout!
"... canceling up to $50,000 in student loan debt would immediately increase the wealth ..." An interesting claim but not seeing how loan debt cancellation translates into wealth generation. Also, the writer references the Roosevelt Institute study but the link resolves to a Mother Jones article's analysis of the Roosevelt study which leads me to wonder why Mother Jones wasn't referenced.
Oh my word! We are all being bamboozled here. Colleges commit fraud, and we simply do not want to contend with that reality so here we are bickering about a couple grand one way or another. And to be clear, most people who owe crippling college debt are not the MDs, Lawyers and PhDs in Women Studies; sure they probably have the biggest amount of debt but they are also able to pay it back without going into default. They should just be quiet. On the other hand, there are all those people who were snookered into getting loans to get degrees from schools that darn well knew they would have a hard time paying those loans back. There are all those people who dropped out without a degree because they were tricked by the colleges with low graduation rates and high default rates. And they are BOTH profit and nonprofit colleges. Good expensive schools have high graduation rates and low default rates; lousy cheap schools have low graduation rates and high default rates. The problem is students who have been cheated cannot sue the schools that cheated them. Colleges pretend they care by hiring ever more deans, drones and DEI administrators. That makes Middle States and other accreditation organizations happy, but it does not help students graduate with degrees earning better than a high-school diploma, or any degree at all. We simply must be able to hold Colleges and Universities legally accountable for taking the money, and leaving their students bleeding in a rut of perpetual debt. Even Columbia does this with their notorious MSW that no student can afford to pay off with that very MSW. Stop College Fraud: Sue your college if you default! They have asymmetrical information, that you as a teenager or even your parents do not.
Reading the top 8-10 comments, I'm surprised I don't see any that mention the issue that most has me foaming at the mouth about this executive action.
Does anyone believe it is remotely appropriate for a president to be handing out $300 billion, or perhaps even double that since we don't yet have reliable cost estimates, WITHOUT LEGISLATION?!?! Or live in a country where a chief executive can award blank checks to people or groups simply by declaring this or that problem a "national emergency"?
Sen. Scott appropriately calls out that even Pelosi described the action as extra-constitutional and ergo invalid. It's a sure bet the people who think this is a good idea will be screaming their lungs out down the road when a GOP president decides to award $400 billion to some pro-GOP faction to combat what that group sees as a "national emergency".
This is constitutional vandalism, pure and simple.
And that's before you get to the utterly offensive endowments that universities have been allowed to accumulate tax-free. To the extent Congress wants to provide debt relief to student borrowers, it should start by taxing those endowments, which are far higher than can be justified for any exempt educational purpose.
We all love to yell about Big Oil or Big Pharma or even Big Social Media. But Big College is just as wicked, and Big Government does nothing to stand up to them. That is some Big Baloney I think. We need new legislation to allow students who default on student loans to sue Big College, well... Biggly! Bail out the banks and bail out the airlines and bail out Wall Street and everyone screams unfair. Bail out crooked University Loan fraud, awe poor higher ed.
Forgiving any portion of student loans without first addressing the cause is completely irresponsible and stupid. The real problem is that the value of a college degree has not even remotely kept pace with the cost. Most of the cost goes to support a bloated administrative class and colleges requirements to graduate often require students to take (and pay for) classes that are completely irrelevant to their career and academic goals, which keeps them there and paying far longer than necessary. It’s time to make colleges co-sign on student loans and put their endowments up as collateral. I think this will force colleges to ask important questions like “should we actually be more selective and admit students that actually want/are ready for college,” or “do we need all of these administrators,” or “do we need all these BS classes that provide almost no economic benefits to the students?”
The universities are selling college degrees many of which are essentially worthless, shouldn’t they bare some of the responsibility? God knows they have massive endowment funds used to fund an ever burgeoning administrative staff. They could either forewarn students that certain degrees won’t get them gainful employment or these institutions should pick up some of the debt for unemployable students who had the misfortune to study a subject ending with the word studies!
And if the business community needs graduates they could fund students who would later come to work for their companies thus paying off the debt through work. I think everyone needs some skin in the game not just the students.
Please tell me how this fixes the problem?? The situation of government loans funding education with low job prospects for an exorbitant cost still exists. Fix the problem or continue to relive the consequences for the next generations.
For all the folk who were talking about (a) Endowments, (b) the minuscule fraction of students who go to elite private universities, (c) major choice, etc. Princeton just announced that it will be FREE to attend Princeton for any family earning less that $100,000 per year (full tuition and room and board). Aggressive financial aid has always been in place, but they will extend this aid up to $150,000 in income. (Obviously, thereafter, aid still exists, it simply won’t be free/as heavily reduced.) Princeton has the highest endowment per student in the country. Look for other wealthy schools to match this very shortly (almost all of the top schools have similar programs already, just a question of where the income cutoff is).
The biggest issue with the student loan crisis right now remains Public/State universities and community colleges, where the vast majority (75%+) of all students go.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/10/us/princeton-university-financial-aid-trnd/index.html
Just nice to see both sides presented. Good read. Thank you.
Mr. Khanna gives away his progressive goal in a single sentence: "[We should] recognize that an adequate education is a right, not a privilege." We've seen this movie before. "Adequate" health care should be a right, not a privilege. Since these are "rights," they must be provided by government. And there are only two ways to do this: We must either: (1) collect money through taxes; or (2) increase our national debt. There are two problems with raising taxes: (1) People resist paying them, both legally through their representatives and illegally; and (2) By reducing people's disposable income and their willingness to work, taxes lower economic growth. The result of all this is clear: (1) We keep increasing our debt, placing it on the back of future generations; (2) We shift decision-making from consumers to government bureaucrats who make decisions based on politics, rather than efficiency, thereby raising costs; and (3) Ultimately, since we can't raise enough money through either taxes or deficits, we end up starving the bureaucratically bloated systems we built. This is the "progressive" prescription for economic decline.
There has never been a better argument to teach economics and finance alongside reading, writing, and math, than this bailout. It has been in the works by the Dems for decades. It really is a true paradox.
I look forward to the day that Sen Scott declares his candidacy for president. He has my vote.
Every time I read an article in Common Sense, I am astonished and grateful for the quality of journalism it demonstrates. This is a great pro/con article with well-articulated points on either side, and it stimulates further thought and consideration. Thanks, again, Bari.
Everyone wants to go to the party, but no one wants to clean up or pay the bill.
No poor people are going to pay taxes to pay the debts of six-figure income earners. That, Mr. Scott, is total BS, and you know it. Which party is going to raise taxes on the poor? The democrats are captured and captivated by modern monetary theorists and theory. Are you repbulicans going to tax the poor? If you can't present better arguments, please don't bother at all. Dave P.
Leftism, leftism, leftism. Let me count the ways...
"While canceling student loan debt is key to resolving the current crisis, it does not fix the underlying problems that led to the debt crisis. The way to do this is to recognize that an adequate education is a right, not a privilege."
Translation: We have the right to your labor and your wealth. We want to learn and you must be forced to teach us.
"With so many Americans searching for educational opportunities after high school, K-12 should be extended to pre-K-14 or K-16, with opportunities to attend either trade school or college."
Translation: Teachers unions need more money and that should be mandated at a federal level. Job skills don't get taught in school, this is a ploy, and everyone knows it.
"China is churning out millions of electricians, tradesmen, engineers, and scientists by paying for their education. Why do we lag so far behind?"
Answer: Have you been to a small college in China? I have. It's ridiculously barebones! Students clean up after themselves and live in barracks, and when they want to have a good time they go study, play video games, or skate on natural ponds. At that one place, anyway. I'm not an expert, but "forgiving" billions in largesse to luxury resort colleges in America is the stupidest, most regressive nonsense ever. Make them cut their own grass if they want a handout!
"... canceling up to $50,000 in student loan debt would immediately increase the wealth ..." An interesting claim but not seeing how loan debt cancellation translates into wealth generation. Also, the writer references the Roosevelt Institute study but the link resolves to a Mother Jones article's analysis of the Roosevelt study which leads me to wonder why Mother Jones wasn't referenced.
Your choise of Ro Khanna as an honest broker for a debate is appalling to say the least. He is an extreme left wing collectivist liar.
Oh my word! We are all being bamboozled here. Colleges commit fraud, and we simply do not want to contend with that reality so here we are bickering about a couple grand one way or another. And to be clear, most people who owe crippling college debt are not the MDs, Lawyers and PhDs in Women Studies; sure they probably have the biggest amount of debt but they are also able to pay it back without going into default. They should just be quiet. On the other hand, there are all those people who were snookered into getting loans to get degrees from schools that darn well knew they would have a hard time paying those loans back. There are all those people who dropped out without a degree because they were tricked by the colleges with low graduation rates and high default rates. And they are BOTH profit and nonprofit colleges. Good expensive schools have high graduation rates and low default rates; lousy cheap schools have low graduation rates and high default rates. The problem is students who have been cheated cannot sue the schools that cheated them. Colleges pretend they care by hiring ever more deans, drones and DEI administrators. That makes Middle States and other accreditation organizations happy, but it does not help students graduate with degrees earning better than a high-school diploma, or any degree at all. We simply must be able to hold Colleges and Universities legally accountable for taking the money, and leaving their students bleeding in a rut of perpetual debt. Even Columbia does this with their notorious MSW that no student can afford to pay off with that very MSW. Stop College Fraud: Sue your college if you default! They have asymmetrical information, that you as a teenager or even your parents do not.
Reading the top 8-10 comments, I'm surprised I don't see any that mention the issue that most has me foaming at the mouth about this executive action.
Does anyone believe it is remotely appropriate for a president to be handing out $300 billion, or perhaps even double that since we don't yet have reliable cost estimates, WITHOUT LEGISLATION?!?! Or live in a country where a chief executive can award blank checks to people or groups simply by declaring this or that problem a "national emergency"?
Sen. Scott appropriately calls out that even Pelosi described the action as extra-constitutional and ergo invalid. It's a sure bet the people who think this is a good idea will be screaming their lungs out down the road when a GOP president decides to award $400 billion to some pro-GOP faction to combat what that group sees as a "national emergency".
This is constitutional vandalism, pure and simple.
And that's before you get to the utterly offensive endowments that universities have been allowed to accumulate tax-free. To the extent Congress wants to provide debt relief to student borrowers, it should start by taxing those endowments, which are far higher than can be justified for any exempt educational purpose.
We all love to yell about Big Oil or Big Pharma or even Big Social Media. But Big College is just as wicked, and Big Government does nothing to stand up to them. That is some Big Baloney I think. We need new legislation to allow students who default on student loans to sue Big College, well... Biggly! Bail out the banks and bail out the airlines and bail out Wall Street and everyone screams unfair. Bail out crooked University Loan fraud, awe poor higher ed.
Forgiving any portion of student loans without first addressing the cause is completely irresponsible and stupid. The real problem is that the value of a college degree has not even remotely kept pace with the cost. Most of the cost goes to support a bloated administrative class and colleges requirements to graduate often require students to take (and pay for) classes that are completely irrelevant to their career and academic goals, which keeps them there and paying far longer than necessary. It’s time to make colleges co-sign on student loans and put their endowments up as collateral. I think this will force colleges to ask important questions like “should we actually be more selective and admit students that actually want/are ready for college,” or “do we need all of these administrators,” or “do we need all these BS classes that provide almost no economic benefits to the students?”
The universities are selling college degrees many of which are essentially worthless, shouldn’t they bare some of the responsibility? God knows they have massive endowment funds used to fund an ever burgeoning administrative staff. They could either forewarn students that certain degrees won’t get them gainful employment or these institutions should pick up some of the debt for unemployable students who had the misfortune to study a subject ending with the word studies!
And if the business community needs graduates they could fund students who would later come to work for their companies thus paying off the debt through work. I think everyone needs some skin in the game not just the students.