Most industrialized countries provide free healthcare and free education up to a four year degree. The expense is offset by the benefit having a healthy, well-trained, well-educated work force. In the Information Age, education is more critical than ever.
The US provides neither of these benefits.
Manufacturing jobs have systematically been sent offshore. The better paying jobs require an education.
The price of an education has increased more rapidly than median wages or the cost of living. Many working families cannot afford to pay for their children’s education, especially given that they also need to pay for healthcare out of pocket.
People need an education to get ahead, so they take out loans.
At the behest of lenders, Congress has enacted laws that force the repayment of those loans regardless of financial hardship.
Student loans are immune to bankruptcy. You still have to pay back the loan, even if you get sick and lose your job and have huge medical expenses.
Complicating the situations is the rise of for-profit businesses that offer educational services. At the primary and secondary level, these businesses are called Charter Schools. Charter Schools are businesses with a CEO. Profit, not education, is their primary objective.
There are for-profit companies providing education at the university level as well. Some use the word University in their name.
For profit companies fulfill their mission by attracting students and collecting tuition. Providing an education to the students is a secondary objective.
These companies do a lot of marketing to attract students. Enrolling paying students is their number one objective.
Some of these institutions were exposed as scams and shut down. The value of the education that students received was negligible, but their loan debt remains very real. Students have to pay back the loans whether or not their “education” resulted in them getting them a job.
These are some of the reasons why student loan forgiveness is an important issue.
I don’t relish having my tax dollars go to paying off someone else’s loans, but it’s necessary for the country to make a course correction.
When former students are no longer burdened with debt, they have more disposable income to contribute to the economy.
I would like to see the US provide more education and healthcare opportunities for all students without forcing people to run up crippling amounts of debt simply to compete in the job market. It’s better to set up a working program than to bail out a broken system.
