Hillary Clinton: government intervention to ease burden
"No family and no student should have to borrow to pay tuition at a public college or university, and everyone who has student debt should be able to finance it at lower rates." - Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders: tuition-free college
Jim Webb: unofficial
Jeb Bush: make college faster to drive down costs
Ben Carson: unofficial, believes it is personal responsibility
"There is a four letter word that works extremely well, it's called w-o-r-k, work." - Ben Carson
Chris Christie: focus is on low-income students
Donald Trump: stop government profit from loans
"That's probably one of the only things the government shouldn't make money off – I think it's terrible that one of the only profit centers we have is student loans." -Donald Trump
Carly Fiorina: unofficial, increase competition so less will attend
Additional information:
Student debt is a big issue, and I think it will only get worse as tuition continues to rise. Currently I think the true burden of college debt for graduates is somewhat masked by parents supporting or somewhat supporting their children through college. Students may not be graduating college with as much debt due to parental support. I think parental support is and will be become less common as parents will have student debt of their own and may be unable to help support their children through college or be unable to start saving at an early age for their children. Student debt is an overwhelming burden that could be lessened with governmental changes. When considering this issue I think it is important to think about the future and not personal experiences when dealing with college debt.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Kate, you bring up a very interesting point; I have parental support while paying for college and while I hope to be able to help my children in the same way, it may be difficult since my parents did not have student debt but I do. Hopefully by the time my children are in college, there will be better government support.
DeleteThe continuing rise of a four year college education has dramatically increased over the past 10 years. Students now are finding it more efficient for students to take an interest in specialty schools more directed for their specific interest. Such as HVAC technicians, Electricians, Plumbers etc. These jobs offer roles with in their companies for middle to higher management positions over time with working with that industry and company. More companies are willing to work with those employees to offer continuing eduaction classes to help support their employees growth. Ben Carson's approach with a great " work " ethic shows that starting from the bottom can help save younger adults money in the long run. The nomanies for the 2016 Presidential election should work on a continuing focus on getting college graduates a better understanding on which career they want to achieve after college. Too many graduates have a degree they can't use or have a limited selection of careers to choose. On careerbuilder.com they state that 4 in 10 don’t think college prepared them for real world. This should become a bigger focus along with lowering the cost of a 4 year program.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment CJ, it is very surprising that 4 in 10 graduates don't think college prepared them for the real world. I also think it is important for students to know that not everyone needs to attend college. Specialty schools, like you mentioned, are great opportunities that do save students money. I believe these schools are not as popular as they once were so maybe the government should look into offering for specialty schools as well as lowering costs of a 4 year program.
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ReplyDeleteI don't understand the idea of "free" college education being beneficial for any parties. Yes, student debt is an issue that plagues Americans but if they get a free tuition, who will be paying the colleges operating costs, salaries, R&D, etc? The Government? I think the most logical answer is a cap on the interest and the profit of loaners like some candidates have stated.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read a quote from Bernie Sanders calling for free education, it makes my blood boil. America needs to go back to its roots of being the most innovative, most technically advanced. Like it or not, schools need the tuition money, not just an endowment fund to keep developing their research centers, attract the best professors and students.
Cap the profit on interest but the idea of free tuition is Un-American!
Thanks for your comment Ryan, I agree I'm not sure that free tuition is the right answer. You bring up a good point that caping the profit on interest may help lower the student debt, I never thought of this. Sanders has also mentioned that he believes free college with help America grow and be up to date compared to other successful countries but I do think they're are other solutions than just free college.
DeleteIt's definitely concerning that education costs have been outpacing inflation for decades. Some speculate there may be an education bubble which is on the brink of bursting similar to the recent housing crisis. Only time will tell. State school are a good solution and if you look at private vs state universities the prices have not increasesd as much for the non-private institutions.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also think that nobody should be limited from getting their first choice because of money restrictions. If you are smart and talented enough to get into an that ivy league school you dream of going to, there should be a way of seeing to it that you go there without crippling debt that will follow you around for decades. Whether it means government assistance, or schools providing financial aid to those who qualify (which many already do, some better than others), those options should be there. Of course people will also argue it's an issue of supply and demand, as long as people are willing to pay the price, then the it isn't "overpriced"; you always have the option of going to cheaper competitor. While that's fine when it comes to things like clothes and cars, education feels like it should have a more human aspect to it.
Thanks for your comment Paul, it is sad to think students are unable to attend their dream school because of money. I understand why some schools have to be expensive but it is unfortunate that money is a huge factor for some students.
DeleteThese are all great points and it would be awesome to see a more proactive approach from the government. What I find most interesting is that young students coming out of high school are educated on many things, but how to manage student loans is not one of them. Being a recent graduate of business school, I didn't grasp the importance of managing student loans as I moved into the professional workforce. I feel this is due to a lack of education on how student loans work. It's almost like a cloud that hangs over your head and you feel like you will never be able to tackle the large amount of debt that can be accrued from an education. Obviously, this can be tough to handle for a young adult trying to make something of themselves. About 65% of high-debt student loan borrowers were surprised or misunderstood aspects of their loans or the borrowing process.(dosomething.org) In my opinion, it would be a huge benefit to the future of young college students if resources could be allocated to educating students on how student loans work. An old professor of mine told me that my total amount of student debt should not exceed my anticipated salary for my first year out of school. This statement should hold true, but it my opinion it doesn't. Since student interests are always changing and job markets are consistently fluctuating, it becomes tough for a student to estimate their first year income out of college. With all that being said, it seems promising that our presidential candidates have made the student debt topic a huge priority in this race. It's good to see and may be one of the first steps towards educating future students on the importance of student debt.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Dan, the comment you made about your old professor really hits me hard. I honestly have no clue what my student debt is going to be upon graduation but I do know it'll be more than my first years salary. While I do think it is hard to guess a starting salary, most students have more debt than that number. I do think it is really important students learn how to manage their debt and I believe this would help our overwhelming national student debt.
DeleteThe cost of post secondary education has been an increasing burden on our country and its students as a whole as it's continuing to drive up our country's debt to income ratio. The ages of "practically" being guaranteed a $40-60K job out of college is long gone which is creating a huge problem for students as they graduate from school. Some students can't get into the careers of their studies which causes them to delay packing back their student loans. I do think the government is taking some of the necessary steps with income based repayment plans but more importantly, we need to focus on the increasing costs of college tuition.
ReplyDeleteAnother perspective to think about when it comes to student loans is the increasing cost of tuition due to inflation. The average cost of schooling as been increasing between 4-6% depending on private or public school. This is higher then the average annual salary increase of 2% as well as the increase that we've seen with the US inflation rate which has averaged around 2.5-3% over the past 20-30 years. We need a government that will help control the future costs of college education which will ultimately play a factor in our countries continuing debt issue.
Thanks for your comment Shane, it is scary to think the average tuition price is increasing faster than inflation. Not only does the government need to help lower student debt, they also need realize that the reason debt is continually rising is because the tuition price is also rising.
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