$1 Trillion In Loans? How Student Debt Is Killing the Economy and Punishing an Entire Generation

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Sarah Jaffe

$1 Trillion In Loans? How Student Debt Is Killing the Economy and Punishing an Entire Generation
Student loans have been going up since the recession began--and now defaults are up too. Something has to be done, but what?

September 21, 2011 |

“If you want to take a relation of violent extortion, sheer power, and turn it into something moral, and most of all, make it seem like the victims are to blame, you turn it into a relation of debt.” -- Economic anthropologist David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years

Tarah Toney worked two full-time jobs to put herself through college, at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, and still has $75,000 in debt. She graduated in six years with a Bachelor's in English and wanted to go on to teach high school.

“Right about the time I graduated, Texas severely cut funding to our education system—thanks, Perry--and school districts across the state stopped hiring and started firing. It became abundantly clear that there was no job for me in the Texas public school system,” she told me. “After two months of job searching I got a temporary position in a real estate office.”

She continued, “In August my post-graduation grace period was up and all of the payments on my student loans amount to $500/month. Adding that expense to my monthly bills puts me at $2,100 per month. If I don't make my payments they will revoke my real estate license, which I need in order to do my job.”

Max Parker (not his real name) enrolled at Texas A&M in College Station, Texas to get a BA in economics and a BS in physics. His freshman year was great—his parents had saved some money to help pay the bills, and after that he was able to get “more generous” student loans. He took a job to help cover the fees and bills that his student loans wouldn't cover, and worked about 35 hours a week during his sophomore year while taking 15 hours of classes—but found that his grades dropped with his workload. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/152477/%241_trillion_in_loans_how_student_debt_is_killing_the_economy_and_punishing_an_entire_generation_/

[ixion]

1. The money goes into Administrators and Regents pockets

and what doesn't goes to provide them royal-class offices and meeting spaces. I was able to get through college with only $15,000 in student loans in the 80's. What could have changed between then and now that would drive tuition prices through the roof? It's not going to professors, for the most part. The black hole is on the administrative side.

[Dokkie]

4. $15000 in the 1980s

adjusted to 2011 dollars is what? I bet she wouldn't have as much of a hard time paying off that $75000 loan if she had a good public school job.

[mistertrickster]

14. That thought crossed my mind too.

I hate to blame the victim, but why go to a pricey private college if you can't afford it?

I couldn't afford it, so I went to the best state college I could find.

[MedicalAdmin]

8. Ya got that right.

Corruption and chronyism. One of my mentors and one of the best administrators (and musicians) I ever knew is disgusted with what has become of his old department. The facilities look great but most of the space is for show and to make the current administrators life cushy.

I remember him once commenting that some of the best schools were complete shitholes as facilities (he used the Eastman School of music which, at the time he mentioned had a weeeeeee rat problem). "Education isn't about edifice."

[udbcrzy2]

10. I agree. Same thing happening at public schools too

I don't understand it when the school administrators (public school k -12) are making more than our Governor. The teaching staff get a little bit of a raise and good benefits, but when you look at the other school staff, they are getting ripped. I'm talking about the secretaries, clerks, janitors, cafeteria staff and school bus employees. Most of those folks are making just above minimum wage with little or no benefits.

I'm sure it's the same at college level.

[mistertrickster]

13. Partly right, I have no love for the perks of administration . . . also

their bloated "make-work" positions--administrators seem to exist to create positions for other administrators.

But the real killer for students is not so much that cost-per-student has risen so fast, it's that the FUNDING-per-student has dropped precipitously. Tax funding is maybe a third of what it once was.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Just compare and contrast

When I graduated from college early in the 1970s, my alma mater had very few administrators: a president, a comptroller, an academic dean (1/2 time--he taught two classes, too), an alumni office director, two deans of students, a personnel director, and a buildings and grounds director.

When I came back as a part-time instructor a mere ten years later, the college had four vice-presidents, all of whom made more than the highest-paid professor. (I knew this, because one of the old-time administrators who knew me from back then got me a temporary job in the Personnel office, where one of my tasks was figuring out how much each employee should have taken out of their salary for pension and health coverage.) Each administrator had assistants, some of whom had their own assistants. Anyone who was in charge of an office made more than the average professor.

The last college I taught at (I left academia in 1993) has added more administrators and more fancy buildings since I left.

[canoeist52]

2. Answers the question "Why aren't the kids leaving home?"

How can they? There's the rent money!

[handmade34]

3. ...

http://signon.org/sign/want-a-real-economic?source=mo&id=31118-5548295-WFzj8cx

[izquierdista]

5. Keep signing up for classes, kids

It takes LOTS of student loans to add up to Jamie Dimon's annual bonus.

[Southerner]

6. This is the expected result...

...when the federal government greatly increases the amount of funding for Pell grants and makes student loans much more available. Some states have lotteries that pay tuition for college students. Also, U.S. employers over the past couple decades have increasingly demanded college degrees from applicants.

Demand for college degrees increased and money to go to college became much more available. Our universities have no incentive whatsoever to be efficient. The price of tuition skyrocketed. Yay.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. And the money is going to lavish buildings and administrative bloat, not

to the faculty.

[raccoon]

16. Not to the rank and file staff, either. nt

[MedicalAdmin]

9. So, if I understand you reasoning...

Universities respond to the precipitous drop in public funds for education by raising funds any way they can including private alliances (which has the nice result of corrupting science), sponsorships, pushing sports, and raising tuition drastically, thus shifting the burden increasingly onto the backs of future generations, and yet, somehow, magically, it is the fault of Pell grants and other supports for low income and middle income students?

Did I get it right?

[mistertrickster]

17. Right, Pell Grants in no way push up the cost of tuition. If anything, they reduce it. nt

[stormpilot]

11. These systems will eventually collapse under their own weight

They're a microcosm of all that's wrong with this country.

[Mosby]

12. maybe US universities should start charging foreign students the full cost of their education.

And states should allow the community college system to offer undergraduate degrees, nothing like a little competition to bring down prices.

[mistertrickster]

15. To my knowledge, colleges already do charge foreign students the full cost.

For instance, where I teach foreign students pay three times what the in-state tuition is.

Plus they can't work off campus or get scholarships or federal loans.

Educating internationals is one of our few multi-billion dollar trade surpluses these days.