I support public service loan forgiveness of an amount not to exceed the average cost of attendance for public colleges and universities in the state in which you reside.

Public service jobs (i.e. teaching, civil service, non-profits, etc.) often pay below market rates and this could help incentivize people to go into careers that benefit communities and society they otherwise would not consider.

Anything beyond that is a no-go for me.

Immediately no.

I am for discharging them through elimination of interest and allowing debtors to pay down the principal through weekend labor at a generous $20 per hour doing community cleanups, work at senior or disabled care facilities, cleanup of homeless camps or other work commensurate with skill sets of the workers.
If you could do 4 days a month/8 hours per day, that would mean eliminating over $7600 in debt per year.
But if the debt holder has no skin in the game, it's just another bailout.

one safe place said:

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No. If you borrow the money, pay it back. If you chose a stupid major, chalk it up to a life lesson learned. Just another liberal democrat vote buying scheme.

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It would be one thing if you had to provide something to prove future earnings potential and/or the ability to pay the loan back like you do with practically every other loan.

These CHILDREN aren't being counseled on anything though.

Again, these are CHILDREN with no life experience or knowledge of money being allowed to take on tens of thousands of dollars in unforgivable debt before they've ever left their parents homes.

Can you not see how this is different than an adult taking on a debt when they have to prove something before being lent anything?

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Public service jobs (i.e. teaching, civil service, non-profits, etc.) often pay below market rates and this could help incentivize people to go into careers that benefit communities and society they otherwise would not consider.

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why do those jobs need a degree?

Manhattan said:

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Yes, and two year associates or two years of bachelors at a public university in a degree applicable to a profession job, accounting, engr, architecture etc should be paid for.

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Two years for engineering...lol

cone said:

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make the loans dischargeable in bankruptcy

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This is how you fix it.

NO!!

Dallas county residents already pay taxes to reduce funding. Also, all student loan money should be sent to school and residence to cover expenses. Work for food money! Should be a minimum grade for all loan money from semester to semester.

By the way, I should have clarified in my OP.

I'm not saying loan forgiveness is the only way. Fixing the system through other means is also an option and many in this thread have pointed out some solid solutions.

I'm merely pointing out the system is terribly broken.

not to derail, but once the repayment pause ends in August, what percentage of borrowers do you think are actually going to be paying back their loans?

excluding the leeches who flat-out refuse to pay, over the past few months/years of talks around blanket forgiveness, partial forgiveness, payment pause extensions, income-driven repayment plans, PSLF, etc., frankly it's gotta be very confusing to the average recent graduate with all of the moving parts. couple this with the fact that some loan service providers (NelNet) are now being serviced by other providers (EDFinancial), it's overly complicated.

seems like the government has created enough confusion in peoples' minds that they'll just F it rather than try to make sense of it all and do the right thing.

plus, the seeds have already been sown for forgiveness. it may not be this administration, but possibly another one down the line. many people may just roll the dice and hold-onto their money in hopes that the future brings blanket forgiveness.

Heck no! You incur a debt, then it is on you. That's how responsible adults act.

A lot of people against student loan forgiveness, are fine with increased military spending

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Public service jobs (i.e. teaching, civil service, non-profits, etc.) often pay below market rates

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If people are accepting the jobs then they are paying the market rate.

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Choices do matter. But I draw the line when you lie and coerce children into believing just getting a college degree is the key to success without actually educating them on their degree options, their earnings potential with said degree, etc.

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The majority of these people were not coerced. And no one forced them into their career path...

They simply made bad choices.

I can think of countless scenarios, where people aren't educated or mentored before making decisions. For example, getting a terrible home loan or car loan. But those aren't forgiven. You live with your choices.

Nitro Power said:

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Manhattan said:

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Yes, and two year associates or two years of bachelors at a public university in a degree applicable to a profession job, accounting, engr, architecture etc should be paid for.

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Two years for engineering...lol

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After two years you know if you are going to graduate, and it be worth taking out a loan for the rest.

rynning said:

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bmc13 said:

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first, they need to fix the issues that caused the mess.

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You mean make it illegal to for people to get loans they can't pay back with the pursued degree?

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I think illegal is a strange choice of word but, in general, yes. there needs to be much more scrutiny over the loans offered as far as who is getting the loan and what the loan is going toward.

RockTXAggie said:

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one safe place said:

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No. If you borrow the money, pay it back. If you chose a stupid major, chalk it up to a life lesson learned. Just another liberal democrat vote buying scheme.

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It would be one thing if you had to provide something to prove future earnings potential and/or the ability to pay the loan back like you do with practically every other loan.

These CHILDREN aren't being counseled on anything though.

Again, these are CHILDREN with no life experience or knowledge of money being allowed to take on tens of thousands of dollars in unforgivable debt before they've ever left their parents homes.

Can you not see how this is different than an adult taking on a debt when they have to prove something before being lent anything?

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This highlights why I would suspect opinions on this divide greatly along generational lines. I'm guessing you are not Gen X or older?

RockTXAggie said:

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I used to be vehemently against it, but I'm coming close to doing a 180 on that.

Let me preface this by saying I'm 40 years old, and I have both my undergraduate degree and my MBA paid off. I say that to acknowledge I wouldn't benefit from student loan forgiveness.

That being said, here is why I switched my stance...

College is a scam that has now been pushed on the last several generations as the only way to succeed in life. Couple that with the fact that many to most college degrees are effectively worthless in the workforce when it comes to landing you the type of employment you need to actually pay off those loans by the time you're in middle age.

Also, there is something fundamentally wrong to me about allowing 17-18 year old kids with no life experience or concept of money to take out tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars. The interest rates, not being able to declare bankruptcy on student debt, the list goes on. To top it off, nobody is telling these kids that college is a bad investment for the vast majority of students.

It's exploitation, plain and simple. It's taking young, naive CHILDREN and coercing them to take on a life a debt slavery that they cannot get out of.

For practically every other instance in life, whether that be taking out a mortgage, a business loan, whatever it may be, you have to be able to prove that you'll be able to pay it back or else a bank won't lend you the money. Not with student loans, though. "Hey kid, you want to be a communications or university studies major? Sure, no problem, here's $100k dollars!"

Anyway, a country's economy thrives by people having purchasing power. The college ponzi scheme is destroying the purchasing power for many in the 20-40 age group.

The system is broken when college graduates can't afford their own place due to overpriced college and runaway inflation that the GOVERNMENT CAUSED. Gee, I wonder why the birth rates are dropping. It's because nobody can afford children with crippling student loans coupled with runaway inflation.

TLDR version: The government built an unbeatable ponzi scheme to take advantage of naive children that have no clue what they are getting themselves into. Furthermore, the crippling debt many cannot pay back is limiting MILLIONS from contributing to the economy and having even half the purchasing power their parents had. The system is broken.

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Another way to solve this is to get rid of all the useless bull**** degrees colleges started offering once the easy money was out there.

18 year olds are adults.

When you borrow money and agree to pay it back you should do it.

The fact that it's hard doesn't change a thing.

Nope. People should pay back money they borrow, period.

If your argument is "but they're kids, and they didn't know," you have no foundation to stand on. You chose to borrow money, now pay it back.

So my household has 4 college degrees with zero pennies of student loan debt because we worked hard, saved, and sacrificed to pay for college…

And we already get prison raped every April 15th because I'm a small business owner.

But you're saying we should just bend over and give a little more so people too lazy and worthless to pay their own debts can have their debts paid off for them, using my hard earned money.

I'm gonna go with no on that.

No loan forgiveness without revamping the entire University System. They can't keep inflating their administrative staff over and over and giving us the bill.

I do think something needs to be done though. Too many young people are putting off having kids due to the debt burden they are carrying, and I am afraid of the demographic problems that this is going to cause our country in the long term.

Since a great number of professors are socialists, ask them to work for 25% less and that value can be passed on to the students. The politicians that want this can participate as well.

Four years at A&M now is what, $100,000?

2040huck said:

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deddog said:

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You need to forgive nothing.
Let college loans be dischargeable in bankruptcy. That way, folks can take responsibility for their actions (taking a loan) and the lenders take a haircut for handing out loans for useless majors.

You know why Democrats will never agree to this? yes, of course, they don't understand the concept of personal responsiblity, but the bigger reason is that once this happens, all of the useless, commie teacher led, majors will disappear from colleges. No more gender studies majors, no more sociology majors. Whatever will Aiden/Adrianna/They then study?

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You think bankruptcy is personal responsibility?

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Yes , it gives you the opportunity for a fresh start, when things don't go your way or because of your piss poor decision making.
Its FAR better than forcing other people to pay for your poor decisions

Colleges aren't scams. They are indoctrination camps.

I don't think there's really a fair way to do it.

The whole system needs fixed. If it gets fixed then it makes sense to forgive the loans of the people that were taken advantage of by the old system. Then at the point it's not fair to the people who already paid off their student loans.

If you want more of something, subsidize it. "Forgiveness" will do nothing to solve the tuition cost issue as others have stated.

Loan forgiveness? No. But we should fiddle around with interest terms to give hard working people who want to pay off their debts a way to do so (drop rates, cap interest accumulations at some maximum, apply all payments to principal instead of interest, etc). The government should not be in the loan sharking/debt slavery business under the guise of public education.

In tuition and required fees, about $54,000.

RockTXAggie said:

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For practically every other instance in life, whether that be taking out a mortgage, a business loan, whatever it may be, you have to be able to prove that you'll be able to pay it back or else a bank won't lend you the money. Not with student loans, though. "Hey kid, you want to be a communications or university studies major? Sure, no problem, here's $100k dollars!"

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This problem was caused by federally guaranteed student loans. Forgiving existing debt doesn't solve this. It just benefits those with student loan debt at the expense of everyone else.

Also it's not realistic as student loans made up between 30%-40% of the fed's assets pre-covid. Not sure what it is now, but doubt it's gotten much better. You can thank federally guaranteed student loans (again) and Obamacare for that one.

No. People need to pay their bills.

And college needs to stop being an indoctrination center.

Deputy Travis Junior said:

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Loan forgiveness? No. But we should fiddle around with interest terms to give hard working people who want to pay off their debts a way to do so (drop rates, cap interest accumulations at some maximum, apply all payments to principal instead of interest, etc). The government should not be in the loan sharking/debt slavery business under the guise of public education.

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I like this idea. Reduce interest rates for continuous on time payments.

I don't understand how forgiving student loans solves anything? If everyone knows they don't have to pay them back why wouldn't every student take out loans whether they need them or not? Parents that actually saved for their kids education can still take the loans and it is free money. Why not pay those sorority fees and buy your kid a great car with a student loan?