Support HR 4170: the Student
Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012
Forgiveness Act of 2012
By Robert Applebaum (Contact)
To be delivered to: Rep. John Kline (MN-2), The United States House of Representatives, The United States Senate, and President Barack Obama
Since 1980, average tuition for a 4-year college education has increased an astounding 827%. Since 1999, average student loan debt has increased by a shameful 511%.
In 2010, total outstanding student loan debt exceeded total outstanding credit card debt in America for the first time ever. In 2012, total outstanding student loan debt is expected to exceed $1 Trillion.
In short, student loan debt has become the latest financial crisis in America and, if we do absolutely nothing, the entire economy will eventually come crashing down again, just as it did when the housing bubble popped. Reasonable minds can disagree as to the solutions, they cannot, however, disagree on the existence of this ever-growing crisis, as well as the unsustainable course we’re on towards financial oblivion.
As a result of more than 30 years of treating higher education as an individual commodity, rather than a public good and an investment in our collective future, those buried under the weight of their student loan debt are not buying homes or cars, not starting businesses or families, and they’re not investing, inventing, innovating or otherwise engaged in any of the economically stimulative activities that we need all Americans to be engaged in if we’re ever to dig ourselves out of the giant hole created by the greed of those at the very top.
Now for the good news: there’s finally hope on the horizon! Representative Hansen Clarke of Michigan has just introduced H.R. 4170, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, in the House of Representatives – legislation designed to lend a helping hand to those struggling under massive amounts of student loan debt.
For a brief summary of H.R. 4170′s main provisions, please copy & paste this URL into your browser: http://tinyurl.com/7akydbk
To read the full version of the actual bill itself, please go here: http://tinyurl.com/6txure8
To read answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, please go here: http://tinyurl.com/8xh4csd
Student loan debt has an undeniable and significant suppressive effect on economic growth. The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 directly addresses this enormous boot on the neck of the middle class and represents a glimmer of hope for millions of Americans who, with each passing day, find that the American Dream is more and more out of reach.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that Congress bring H.R. 4170, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, up for consideration and commit to holding a straight, up-or-down vote on it this year. Thereafter, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that President Obama sign this legislation into law.
Lets relive the recession with some trickle up economics! Forgive debt as we forgive those who trespass against us!
Making money off of people who are not even in the work-force is lower than low. It’s bad enough their text books get useless new editions on a yearly level, making it difficult to resell old books, but to charge interest on an education is ill, especially when it was the banks’ fraudulent practices that triggered the collapse of the job market. These students wouldn’t be able to repay their loans. So what, you looking for a new slave force? SHAME ON YOU!
This bill has a fatal flaw. The vast majority of us who have struggled the most and for the longest amount of time with a student loan do not have a history of 120 consecutive loan payments, as this bill requires. We go in and out of default and in and out of deferments. Each time we do this, we break the 120-consecutive-payment chain and so have start all over again. How in the world, in this economy, are we supposed to EVER make 120 consecutive payments?
As I said, this is a fatal flaw, rendering the bill bogus.
I think if you sign up for the income based payment plan for your loans this would make it easier to pay them off in those increments.
Income Based Repayment (IBR) Effective July 1, 2009
Income Based Repayment is a new repayment plan for the major types of federal loans made to students. Under IBR, the required monthly payment is capped at an amount that is intended to be affordable based on income and family size. You are eligible for IBR if the monthly repayment amount under IBR will be less than the monthly amount calculated under a 10-year standard repayment plan. If you repay under the IBR plan for 25 years and meet other requirements you may have any remaining balance of your loan(s) cancelled. Additionally, if you work in public service and have reduced loan payments through IBR, the remaining balance after ten years in a public service job could be cancelled. For more important information about IBR go to IBR Plan Information. Or, to download an IBR Fact Sheet in PDF format, click here.
It’s not fair to be a slave to the banks for my education.
I support this petition.
You say every American deserves the right to higher education… however Since 1980, average tuition for a 4-year college education has increased an astounding 827%. Since 1999, average student loan debt has increased by a shameful 511%! Just how is this benefitting Americans? The banks that produce the loans for students do not care that these are the future of our Country… they only care that they are going to make more money off students than they could if they invested in market products. I am one of the many students that is so deep in debt I do not foresee a future of prosperity, only one of more and more debt, which I can not hope to over come in my lifetime. Change needs to happen yesterday! Please pass HR4170 now!
Let’s do something for the middle class for a change
If they are going to forgive student loan debt it needs to be all or none. They can’t bracket it like they do taxes. I was fortunate enough to come out of college making a good amount of money with a reasonable debt compared to most. Because of my income I am not able to even write off my student loan interest and I still pay $800 dollars a month in student loans and graduated in 2006. I think that if they do want to stimulate the economy they should start with removing the student loan debt and it would free up a lot of young individuals to be able to make the purchases they need toward their future like houses and investments.
I hope and pray that Congress bring the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 up for consideration, and that President Obama signs this legislation into law.
Debt- the biggest commodity of the Bush era. Can we now please move toward productive use of limited resources and do something worthwhile?
Help these kids out who have struggled thru school, and now are ready to enter the work force with limited opportunities for finding a job. Remove their burden of a loan theyhave but no, or limited chance to earn an income. Let them focus on being productive and contributing to our economey and help build USA back to what it used to be, not as now below most of the world whoes growth in technology is expanding beyond us.
We have three kids in college, we both work, the kids all work, we all have borrowed money for them to go to college. They will graduate with almost 30,000 in debt and one of them wants to be a doctor. They all have some scholarships and their father and I have saved since their birth for college but the cost of college is more than anyone with our income could save. most scholarships are typically 250 to 1000 dollars which is helpful but not nearly enough. We are lucky we can do it but what about all the kids who just can’t go to college? I know some of them and it’s heartbreaking. This is not the America I grew up in where if you worked hard enough you could go to college. It’s not possible anymore. We are at the point where only wealthy people can go to college in this “classless” society. I’m encouraging them to emigrate so their kids can have a future, it’s too late for us. We are at the crossroads where America’s future is at stake and it’s in the hands of politicians to do the right thing. Forgive student debt and work out a solution to this problem.
I am currently paying on three student loans (one private) to pay for my nursing education. I’m working about 50 to 60 hours per week just to make ends meet and still struggling to make payments on these loans. My payments exceed $500 per month. I support this Act.
Please help us, help our sons, and other sons and daughters, live a life with hope for their future, and not fear.
Bravo for bringing to light yet another shameful banking industry tactic to put its profits ahead of the well-being of our people and national.
Please do this!
My husband and I have attended post-secondary education on and off for over 20 years to finally achieve our dreams of being awarded advanced degrees and pursuing our professions of choice. Along the way we received some scholarships, but family couldn’t help us so we had to rely on loans as well. Together we have student loan debt equivalent to a sizable house mortgage. We cannot afford to purchase a house, new cars (our current cars are 12 and 14 years old), take vacations, save for retirement. In short, we can only afford to participate in the economy in the most menial ways beyond basic living expenses. And it will be this way for the next 25 years as we had to extend the payment plan. Add to this the ten years we’ve already been paying on some loans, and most of our adult life will be spent paying off these loans, with a cumulative paid interest more than the original loan amounts. I cannot imagine what it will be like for current undergraduate students who are accumulating the same amount of debt just for a bachelor’s degree.
I was able to work very hard, and long hours, as did my wife. Our son was able to go to school in his field. I have a brain tumor now. If this had happen sooner my son would be stuck. ALSO ALL CHILDREN DESERVE at least a chance to go to a college.
Thank You
I urge forgiveness of the entire outstanding student loan. Higher education should be free as in many other developed nations. It is a public good par excellence.
What a great idea!
Now that I’m under employed and earning 1/3 of what I was due to the economy- Ive been able to put my loan in hold and only pay interest, but it feels like a mortgage that I’m never going to pay off!
My loans have been in forbearance for most of the ten years I’ve been out of college. As a result, the principal has doubled. I cannot find a job that will cover the cost of childcare for my two young boys, let alone take my loans out of forbearance. My husband’s salary is enough for us to live on, but a $300+ student loan payment would crush us. We need some way out.
Six years of college, the first two were paid in cash, and i now have over 55 thousand in student loan debt. It was 40 something but the interest adds up and my small 60 dollar monthly payments make no dent. My degree is in english with a minor in education but because i was a tenth of a point under the gpa required to student teach i was unable to get my certification and now have a teaching degree but cant teach. Ill be paying on this for the rest of my life and going no where. My annual income is twenty thousand and i have a two year old daughter and its either pay the sixty and hope or skimp out on food and bills to take care of this debt. This bill is my hope.
I can’t afford the loans I’m having to repay and there doesn’t seem to be any sort of real help out there since I’m working and can repay them….no one takes into account that I don’t make enough money to be able to repay them.
I did the right thing in 2005. To raise my family out of the near poverty we had been in for so many years (in spite of full time work as a Teaching Asst), I followed the urging of my professional colleagues, went back to school, and got my master’s in teaching. I earned straight As in the program, and earned the confidence of the Dean of Education, who called me the most promising new teacher he’d seen in a decade. I had one year teaching in a temporary assignment when the bottom fell out of the economy. My state has lost over 30,000 teaching jobs in the past three years. Now I have 45K in student loans for a degree I can’t use. I have no job, and can’t even afford to retrain for a different profession. If I take an entry-level job in a different industry, I won’t be able to pay back my loans, never mind finance my daughter’s college. I have one child in college already, and another headed there in another year. Student Loan debt has me trapped!
My children and myself are all sinking under student loan debt. My youngest child is to start college in the fall. I don’t know how I’m going to keep my house when all of these loans come due. These days if you get a college education, which you need just to get a job that pays over minimum wage, you are in debt for life. We are the only industrialized country that does this to its citizens. Wake up America, the land of opportunity has become the land of debt and poverty. I am the 99%.
This needs to be taken care of quickly. My daughter is sufficating under this debt and Sallie Mae will NOT work with her to help under any circumstance – which we were told when we got the loans that of COURSe they’d work with us to make the payments manageable. Well.. I don’t think $800/mo is a manageable payment.
My children are in danger of lossing everthing. They have tried to find work and have not found any jobs that can provide enough money to pay the bills let alone the student loans. This generation will have to revolt in order to get justice. It is hard not to think they have been set up.
I have become disabled and cant work I had to file bankruptcy because of medical bills I got a letter in mail now saying that my SSI will be garnished by 150.00 per month to pay my student loan I aleady cant eat half the time or have to do without medicine now they want to make it worse by making my check smaller how do they think I can live?
I know people who never went to college and make a lot more money than I do teaching plus they don’t have student loans…they are way ahead of me, I’ll be paying my loan until I die!
This bill is extremely important. For those of us who went to graduate school, and have debt approaching $200K, I can’t tell you loudly enough how important it is that we come up with a way to manage the debt crisis.
You may be temped to think that we knew what we were doing when we went to school, but the facts tell a different story. Professional school after professional school inflated the numbers of placement, graduation rate, and income after graduation. If you need proof, just look at the ABA and American law schools. We thought we would be able to pay off our debt, but we can’t. The economy and the job market have conspired against us, and we need help.
You may believe that it’s not the government’s job to “bail people out,” but when the problem is so large, and so looming, only a national player can provide adequate assistance. The banks prey on us; the schools lied to us. We need help.
I support this bill because I support American workers, American families, and future generations who should have the opportunity to go to school with out fear of life long indebtedness.
As a struggling single parent, this would help me SIGNIFICANTLY!
I wouldn’t mind paying on my student loan if the monthly amount was reasonable, but they have such ridiculous choices, if you cannot pay a certain amount, then they want you to defer until you can. Wouldn’t it make more sense to get a small payment as opposed to no payment at all?
Banks and private lenders are giving loans so freely to college students who are unable to even understand the weight of being so in debt before they are even 25 years old, without the guarantee of a job, even with a college degree. It’s a travesty that colleges across the country expect our youth to be saddled with this much debt. The amount of paperwork the lenders give out is mind boggling and very very confusing. It is exactly the same as when the big banks gave loans so freely to people who could not afford their mortgage when they bought their first home. The government, the banks, the private lenders are once again manipulating these kids into thinking they will have a job after 4 years in college and $50,000 to $80,000 in debt. It’s pure greed on the parts of all the institutions: colleges and universities, the government, the banks and the wealthy private lenders!!!
It would be very appreciated if even a part of student’s loans were forgiven. Especially for those furthering their careers so the government does not need to provide support for them and their families. Keeping my fingers crossed that this goes through!
for college age and others who are attending college, classes are hard enough, especially if one has to work either full or part time in order to go to school. the student loan program has been a help so one can concentrate on classes and not worry about monies necessary for next semester/quarter. do not allow student loans to increaase especially in these difficult economic times.
This debt reduction must be accomplished. It will determine the future of the United States!
When I went to post secondary school in the young 60s the cost was $300. That was for a whole year, two semesters full time, minus supplies, housing and food. Now my alma mater costs $30,000, $40,000 with housing and food, supplies still extra. Virtually nobody had any debt associated with college attendance. Now, lest one is of rich parentage, debt is just part of education. Being an advocate of free higher education comes easily if considered that to maintain a firstworld culture education is essential. Otherwise we are relegated to elite education and general public lack. In this technological society this is unaffordable. Hence make education affordable, free. Don’t worry about cost; government wastes that much money every day on other trivialities, war, military installations worldwide, bridges to nowhere, pensions, redundant agencies, clandestine intrigues, personal earmarks for constituents’ votes, and so much more. If we want to keep up, keep educational costs down.
If we can bail out businesses, banks and let the big shots keep their money then we should be able to pay off the debt of kids who are trying to get an education and don’t have the funds to get it.
My student loans are going to be with me until I die.
If I didn’t have a $400 a month student loan payment I would be in the market to buy a house.
I hope this passes!!
Our petition is in favor of The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012. Thanks for your help.
Will this student loan forgiveness act apply to private student loans as well?
Yes.
What’s worse there should be no limit on how much you can borrow towards secondary education because the cost of education increases constantly but the amount of financial aid that you can receive to complete your education. The cost of The American Dream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please help me out from under this mountain of debt.
This is generational warfare. The greed of lenders and the shortsightedness of educational institutions have combined to create an unsustainable burden for all but the most privileged of our young adults. And it’s not just students but their parents that have taken on educational loans that now threatens the middle class (current & future) as surely as any foriegn enemy.
Big corporations and their investors, bankers and the financial industry are doing quite well post the Great Recession. Now it is time to address the mess and the consequences of this student loan nightmare so many Americans and their families are facing.
This is the news I have waited years for. My student loan has been in repayment for over 11 years and I have almost paid the balance of what I originally borrowed. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago I had to place my loan in forebarance and my principal SKYROCKETED back to my original balance. Not only I am I not allowed to refinance at the lower interest rates (I have been stuck at 6% while others consolidating after me enjoyed a 3.5% interest rate). I am so pleased to see that someone in America is finally looking out for the EDUCATED middle class.
Dear Mr. President
We need your support in this bill. I too am an African American single mom with three children who from the time of infancy, encouraged them all to pursue a college degree. My grandfather had a third grade education and was forced to work in order that he and his family could have food and shelter. Before he left this earth in 2005, he told me that he would help me with the children and their college pursuit. That was seven years ago, and I was married to their father. Since that time, I have accrued much debt paying for my student loans along with two parent plus loans for my two older children. I am thanful to God that I am employed in the education system for the past 14 years, however due to the current economic situation, our school district has not received an increase in their pay for the past four years. We need help, I appreciate all that you have done. May God bless you and thank you for allowing me to comment on this subject.
Reylene Williams
This should be a no-brainer, going with the conservative less tax principle. Subsidizing student loans is NOT spending (except for the administrative costs, which are less with direct-to-student lending) unless the taxpayers borrow money at a HIGHER rate to loan out. At this time, market interest rates, except for credit card and student loans made by the banks, are the lowest in many years, so the US is actually making a PROFIT on these loans. If the lower rate expires, this will be a LARGER profit, hence the equivalent of RAISING TAXES, of which Grover Norquist would not approve, right?
Greetings, At this time, in our current economic crisis, it is unfair to consider anything that will make repaying student loans more difficult.
Please do the right thing for our students.
Thank you, Dorothy
Thank you.
I feel the government should pass the loan forgiveness bill because it would help students get a jump start on their finances also it would jumpstart businesses more in that people will have the money to spend instead of being in debt to the government for loans.
The American Dream has become my personal nightmare.
I have been paying my loans for 20 years! Due to forebearances during financially difficult times I still owe more than I originally borrowed. How can that happen?
I have the exact same situation, I have barely been able to keep up with the interest on the original loans. I’m starting grad school in September because I can only increase my income by getting licensed in my field (social work.) Crazy, I work with teenagers and I am constantly suggesting vocational school instead of college. It’s a ridiculous situation our country is in! Thanks Robert for your work on this, really.
I’m in the same boat! I don’t think I’ll ever pay it off before I retire.
Husband lost his job due to ecoominic downturns. He returned to school in his late 30′s and obtained a degree. I eventually completed my degree in my 30′s. We paid for several years, the had an economic hardship forbearance. We have raised 2 kids, worked consistently, have not bought a new or larger house. Our loans were consolidated into one payment but we still have two lenders. The combination equals $1,200 in monthly payments due to the interest charges. At the rate we are going, our loans are scheduled to be paid when we are 82. We currently owe more than we borrowed due to interest. There is no way to make a payment towards principal because interest is paid first. It is a never ending cycle. I truly understand why people end up defaulting on their loans. In many cases it’s not for lack of trying – it’s because the system is broken.
So you have probably already paid back what you originally borrowed plus more. Shows you how badly they screw you on the interest that just keeps growing and growing and growing!
that sucks, anne. that sucks so hard it blows. im sorry.
please
Please stop the student loan slavery.
Times are hard enought with students loans making life harder.
I am a United States citezen currently receiving SSD; I have student loans that have been in the process of being discharged since I have become disabled (HIV/DIMENTIA; and after 3 years of a back-and-fourth process I am still trying to have the loans discharged. I may not be able to work, and am using the time I would’ve used if I could work therepeutically while working on a book and film related to spirituality and choices; and feel without prayer, healthy living, my project and non-profit counseling (it’s all i can afford/it is free), my healing process would be of naught, still; and I would be deeper in a place of despair. Moreover, if my student loan isn’t discharged, my medication, the roof over my head and the food I eat, all of the very things that keep me alive, nourished and appreciative of being an American, will be taken away and my healing process stunted. I wouldn’t know what else to do.
I am at 19 years and am going to try for the 25. Can’t retire due to the payments. Don’t understand why we can’t have a say in the matter. What happened to government of the people, by the people and for the people? I have felt more and more that the government boot has been pushing down on my neck harder and harder. Disappointed in so many ways the government makes and handles problems. Would it help to have a president who knows how to handle and make money? The so called leaders now are scared to death to have people in the government who are savvy to real business ways and means, but I say CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE!!!!
I was suckered and lied to by the salesman at my college promised jobs that were NOT there for me. I was forced to take a lesser paying job that I lost in the economy and now I can’t pay my other bills.
I was scammed by the “college” I went to. Now, all I have two years later is a worthless diploma in an over-saturated field and debt I can’t afford to pay back. The career counselor/salesperson sold me a complete joke. I am trying to fight to get federal funding out of these schools. The amount I owe is ridiculous considering the average pay for the field I am in is minimum wage; not twenty dollars per hour as I was led on to believe. The student loan debt crisis is out of control and it will eventually cause another collapse in our economy.
My son is in so much debt due to student loans but can only fine low paying jobs even though he has a 4 yr degree. It is so bad that he now says he should have never gone to college because it did nothing for him in the job market but put him in debt.
Your son is not alone in his feelings, I feel the exact same way. I was 18 when I went to college and no one sat me down and explained how much debt I was taking on vs. how much I would be making. I could have worked for four years, then taken community college courses, then finished up at a regular college with little to no debt. I would have also taken more time to research what would actually pay the bills vs. my “dreams”. Dreams are nice and all but won’t pay the rent.
What is his degree in?
Tell him to serve his country.
There should be an additional part of this proposed legislation. Former students who for one reason or another, can’t work or at best, are permanently grossly underemployed, should have the ability to get their loans forgiven.
My son suffers from Schizophrenia and has been able to work only part time for minimun wage when he was actually able to get a job. He graduated from college over 25 years ago with a loan of $14,000. He has never made enough money to pay down the loan, let along the interest, which has continued to accumulate to bring the value to over $35,000. It’s likely he will never be able to work again because of his illness. This loan has be transferred from one entity to another without his permission and nobody is willing to forgive the loan even though he supplied medical records to prove his illness. What do we do about people like him? Shouldn’t there be a mechanism to forgive these loans before they get out of hand.
This legislation does that. Under the 10-10 plan if your son has made payments for 10 years then the balance of the loans will be discharged. This goes for both federal and private loans.
If he has federal student loans, there is. It’s called total and permanent disability discharge.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that Congress bring H.R. 4170, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, up for consideration and commit to holding a straight, up-or-down vote on it this year. Thereafter, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that President Obama sign this legislation into law.
I love that I was able to go to school, but after getting out with my debt, I encourage people to only take 1-2 classes and learn the rest on tutorials online.
If I had not gone to school, I would have a house right now :-/
I do not believe that student loans should be “forgiven.” I took out the money and I want to repay it. HR4170 is not good legislation it allows the Secretary of Education to decide whose loans will be forgiven and whose loans will not. It is a confusing piece of legislation. That is part of the current problem with the student loan system.
My legislation makes more sense and I believe would be accepted by both parties.
1. While in school, the interest rates for unsubsidized and subsidized Federal student loans should be two percent.
2. Three percent should be the ceiling once out of school.
3. There should be one constant rate for Federal Student loans.
4. These rates should come up for review every ten years and be authorized by Congress if there is to be a rate increase.
5. If a borrower is out of work for more than a twelve month period the accruing interest should freeze.
6. Once gainfully employed at a full time job [that is not minimum wage] the employer must report the status of the employee after the first ninety days. Re-payments will begin after the first ninety days.
7. For those of with Master Degrees and above who have outstanding student loans over $50,000.00 the Government should commence an incentive program [a tax break per employee] that would encourage companies to hire job seekers with advanced degrees.
8. Government Agencies that are behind in their workload. For example, the State Department [paper work for immigration and non-status residents] the Veterans Administration, should have programs that allow those with Advanced Degrees who have been unemployed for more than a twelve month consecutive period or have been employed only part-time for a twelve month consecutive period to volunteer for positions in said agencies. Minimal loan forgiveness would be allotted per quarter. This would not only allow for better customer service from these agencies but would give those borrowers a sense of satisfaction, alleviate stress regarding loans, give back to the community and country and be a source of experience and resume filler.
Yes, I agree there should be some way for people (myself included) to be able to use the higher degree and be compensated in a way that would make it possible to pay back student loan debt. I have to keep getting a deferment because I have been self employed for eight years, and do not make enough to pay back student loan debt. I looked for work in my field when I first became unemployed and went to interview after interview, even setting up an interview 3,000 miles away which was cancelled before I was able to go to it (leaving me with an airline cancelation fee of $100, what a slap in the face.) There have been no jobs available that my degree left me qualified for.
As a Masters Student with a nominal amount of Student loans I totally agrre with you. I want to be able to pay my loans back but am very worried about the interest acruing faster than my ability to pay. Government should offer incentives for companies hiring people with higer degrees.
I agree that the loans should not be forgive! Many have work hard and have gone without many things to pay their loans off. Since Obama into what’s fair, it’s not fair to those that worked hard to pay their loans to now have the ones that haven’t worked hard enough just be forgive of their loans. North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate, move and get a job it’s better than starving. Of course the government will take care of that too. It’s getting to the point of why work! Let the government take care of you. What they are forgetting is where is all this money coming from and if everyone takes the lazy way out who going to be paying taxes to pay for all the government programs. Just look at Greece!
I don’t agree with your whole proposed idea but that it is not that far off the mark. Nice Job!
This sounds like you’ve really thought about it. I have a four-year degree that I could not have gotten without loans. Why don’t they just take all of the interest off of the loans and let people pay the principle. I probably wouldn’t have my loan forgiven under this bill and that would really P*** me off.
This I could support! Increasing my tax burden so a bunch of students WHO MADE A CHOICE to get loans and then don’t want to pay them is NOT FAIR. My daughter could have chosen a university where her Phd would have cost $30K. Instead to make her life easier, she chose a university that cost $120K. Her loan, her problem. NOT my problem. I worked and put myself through college without a dime of student debt. Why do people think “I” should pay for them to be lazy when I wasn’t lazy?
If you want to be heard then go and put in as much hard work as all of these organizations/entities have. Don’t spam their space with your ideas. I believe that if indeed “your” system is more effective, YOU should boss up and make a plan with YOUR own website and plan of action. Now, that my friend would be more effective and would get you more attention..rather than the pure annoyance of your long message, which by the way was discarded upon encounterment.
Exactly. I actually thought I was going to be able to pay it off. I pay all year and owe more at the end of the year. I am not paying anything off.
‘an incentive program [a tax break per employee]‘
With all due respect, these kind of incentives don’t often work. I have listened to various reports on how the government actually does very little to ‘create jobs’ and incentivizing in this way isn’t enough. A tax break doesn’t make economic sense to a company when it means they have to incur the cost of hiring another person, which often involves training, benefits, wages, etc. A tax incentive matters little.
As someone who will be graduating very soon into a job market with a supposed ‘shortage’ (nursing), I have done my research on the area I am moving into (Denver, CO) where, as in many other parts of the country, there are NO jobs for new grads. Please feel free to do a job search on Denver and read where explicitly in the posting it says ‘NO NEW GRADS’, ’2 yrs experience required’, etc. Nonetheless, nursing schools continue to crank out students like there’s no tomorrow. Nursing schools want to make money. I also have a quick and easy solution to the number of nursing grads who can’t find jobs: take advantage of this time to lower nurse-to-patient ratios. Each nurse has less patients and can take better care of them. This means more nurses, each nurse doing a better job because he/she is not stressed out and overburdened. This means significantly better patient outcomes, less medication administration errors, and even less deaths. The hospitals know this research, but they want to make money too.
If you don’t support this legislation because it isn’t perfect, graduating students such as myself will continue to be crippled as we come to the realization that the lies we bought into only helped us heap trouble on our own heads. Something is better than nothing.
The proposal for caps and forebearance are on the right track vs an outright amnesty plan for student debt. Beyond that solution, if institutions of higher education were chartered to be stone sober and exclusively focused on academic learning as a condition for full public funding, would the lure of debt-free education draw any students?
I think your plan is great although there are certain things that we have no control of that should allow forgiveness.
I am torn. I owe $120,000 in student loans for my degrees. I am employed, but would consider it “under-employed” since I make less with an MBA than I owe in student loans. I had to borrow as much as I did, since I chose to go to school as a single mom rather than living on welfare. With the weight of the debt, I sometimes wonder if I wouldn’t have been better off taking the welfare checks when they were offered. I make a middle class income, but with an MBA, should make much more.
On one hand, I’d like to have my student loans forgiven.
On the other, I agree with Jordan in that companies should be offered an incentive program to hire the most educated persons. Also lowering the interest rate on existing as well as new loans. I currently pay 6.8% & 7.75% on my federal loans and 9.75% on my private loan. Just the reduction in interest rate would provide some relief.
This makes much more sense, and I can see this working. Loan forgiveness shouldn’t happen, but reform? You bet your ass.
1 and 2, where are you getting this interest rate? At one point, federal student loans held a variable interest rate that could never exceed 9%, holding it at an artificially low rate is illogical. It will cost more money to the taxpayers and those not receiving the student loans to pay them back.
3 and 4, I agree, but it should be reviewed yearly for those loans that are being taken out that year… wait, that’s the current system.
5 and 6, There are plenty of people that refuse to take a job because they feel it is below them, why should they get an incentive to remain unemployed? Under the current IBR program, for federal loans, if you’re unemployed you can qualify for a $0.00 payment.
7 and 8, There is a program called Americorp, you should check that out.
Pursuing an education should not make living the rest of one’s life prohibitive.
this is greatly needed as a recent grad with only partime employment the burden of student loan debt is hard
I am over my head in student loan debt. Help Please!
I support all debt forgiveness.
Give us a chance!!
lets forgive those who seek knowledge
My loan was discharged in bankruptcy as shown on the debts discharged, yet they continue with collection. I’m a senior citizen and they threaten to garnish my small wages, my social security, and bank accounts.
Please pass this bill to help me and thousands of others.
Gail, if your debt was written off these people cannot garnish wages, SSI, or bank accounts.
In the collections industry, there are companies that will purchased charged off accounts long after they have been charged off and continue to try and collect on them. They do not have any legal standing to punish you for not paying (as this was already resolved when the debt was charged off), but they use fear and intimidation tactics in hopes that somebody who doesn’t understand their legal rights in the collections system, will just pay the money anyway. Since the originating loan source has already written off the debt, any amount paid at this point in time becomes 100% their profit.
If you feel you’re being harassed by them, you should get their company name and report them to the Better Business Bureau.
Your bankruptcy only lists the private loans as a standard practice in the notifying process. Student loans of all kinds are not discharable unless you’re disabled and that has to be done by a special and separate judgment by the judge. If your loans were private this piece of legislation would not cover it because it is for federal subsidized loans.
Student Loan debt is presumably not dischargable. make sure that your lawyer filed an adversary proceeding, otherwise the debt was almost definitely not discharged.
Significant amounts of money are delivered to large corporations and business through direct subsidies and or tax breaks every year and the majority, if not all, DO NOT need it. It ends up in a massive golden parachute for an already rich CEO or other top executive to be put into a portfolio of investments.
Well how about investing in the future of this country for once instead of its past. Those companies, and especially those rich executives, have already succeeded. They already know how to game the system to reap more rewards. Our economy is suffering for it. Let’s give our students who are struggling some help so we can begin to turn this economy around.
As a recent graduate, this bill would greatly help me! Thank you!
As a single parent trying to better my life for myself and my child, I am putting myself into debt through student loans. Please sign this into action so that those of us who are trying to accomplish something in our lives can graduate with the peace of mind that this wasn’t all for nothing. I am worried that when I do gradute, I will not be able to pay back my loans because of the high payment amount. Thank you.
This law has to pass! Please let it include private student loans, also. My husband and I never dreamed that we would be held hostage by the loans we co-signed to for our children’s future. They are employed (not gainfully) and trying to make it, but these loans are preventing them to enjoy life as it once was!
I hear you! My husband and I also cosigned for our son. It has been a disaster the past 5 years for him and us. Our son has been unemployed once but has been at his current position 19 months. The unemployed time put him back on all of his payments and although he has a good salary now he still can not keep on track with $600 a month for student loans in addition to rent, etc. He does not even own a car. His credit rating is in the toilet and he has dragged ours with it because of being behind so often. My husband and I both became unemployed 5 years ago and everything we have set aside for our future is gone. We are on again off again with employment. What a mess! We need support and I feel this is a step in the right direction!
We are in the same boat. We co-signed for our son to help keep his interest rate lower on private loans. Now…he is unable to get a job in the field he went to school for at a pay rate that would allow him to pay on his loans and because of the economy and job cut backs my husband lost his job over a year ago so we too are unable to pay on these loans. We are struggling just to keep our household up to date. Now the calls for loan payments and threats just keep coming. Not how I thought we would be after working the last 40 years of our lives! Retirement…will never see it!
the amount of debt that has been placed onto students is unreasonable and works only in a good market where dream jobs are easily gotten, not in a depression like this one
*the loans we co-signed for our children’s future.
My daughter has student loans that she cannot pay due to her non-working status. One of her loans is a parent plus loan and I am also in dire straights and do not know how I will pay the loan either. In addition, she went back to school and now owes the college $800 for classes she was taking and has since dropped because she could not pay them. Something has to give.
Have you contacted your student loan servicer? there are many options available to lower or temporarily postpone your parent plus loan.
Please pass this bill! We are struggling as students and I will never pay off my student loan debt. It will follow me to the grave! I can’t buy a house, a new car, clothes, or anything because of this overwhelming debt and interest that is being tacked on to it.
I agree with everything the bill has to say. I will spread the word.
I have over $60,000 in student loan debt combined with my husbands student loan debt we have over $100,000 to repay. It is severely restricting us financially. I would love to see this passed!
Love this!! What our nation needs is more educated citizens, and this will help people know they can afford a college degree.
I support this initiative
Please do something about this. It affects all of us – student loans or not.
Please forgive the students loan and let these young people make the economy getting better.
Please consider doing something about the student loans so many of us are burdened with because we allowed banks to become predators of students and many universities worked with these banks. Tuition costs are based on the amount that the federal government is willing to vouch for via FAFSA, not on any measure. It all has to stop and higher education rehabilitated so that it is about education, not money making.
Don’t punish the achievers
A teacher
please say yes
Though we am thankful for our education, it is a financial burden that weighs our family down. It is the biggest check we write every month, even bigger than our mortgage payment. At the current rate, we will not be able to have our student loans paid off until we retire in our 60s.
Please consider this recommendation that would surely “lighten” the load and boost our economy in a positive way. Thanks.
I am not a parent looking for an easy way out. This economy and having two children diagnosed with life-threatening illness has completely changed our course. It seems to me that the only ones not forgiven in this massive mess are those who pay the taxes. Its time to make the playing field even.
My son and, consequently the whole family, is affected by his student loan. He attended law school and has a very large amount of money owed. He is paying this loan in double payments, has a mortgage on his house, a wife and child as well as other expenses. He is not a spendthrift but being bogged down by student loans is prohibiting him from saving, investing, and supporting his family as well as he can. Increasing these interest rates on loans will create an greater hardship on all students and families. We were not born with a silver spoon in our mouths and all we ask is consideration for us and our effort to live. Many European countries do not require student loans and so there are no loans to pay back. I used to think America cared about the 99% but actions show I am wrong.
Your son could have worked for 2 years between undergrad and law school, saved the entire amount and not taken out a loan at all. Why do you want ME to pay for your son’s inability to save before he spent?
I’m a teacher. My wife is a teacher. All we have ever wanted professionally is to contribute to a good society. Decades of student loan debts are slowly eroding our abilities and our commitments. Help. Please.
If you teach in a low income school, you will quailfy for Teacher Loan Forgiveness after 5 years… You should also look into the Public Service Loan Forgiveness option.
Please save us President Obama! It is so hard to do anything paying 350 dollars a month for a 2 year degree! I went to college to better myself and I found the job I wanted but I couldnt afford to move because of my monthly payment. All of that hard work for more money and in the end I had to settle for less money than I started with before I had a degree. I know I can’t be the only one in this situation! This isn’t right! Going to college shouldn’t ruin your life it should make it better.
Sean, That is a wonderful statement: “Going to college shouldn’t
ruin your life; it should make it better.”
I wrote this statement at 4:03pm., and #1 around 6:pm.
AGREED! Going to college is suppose to BETTER your life, not prevent you from having one!
It would be incredible to put this Act up for vote.
This is wonderful and I wish I could sign this more than once! I have over 100gs in load debt! Now only the principle is 75, but an extra 25plus in interest ….are you kidding me?! If my husband didn’t already have a home I would never be able to afford one, I have a great job and make decent money, but when half my income goes to Sallie Mae that leave very little for other bills, house bills and food…..and the stress of them calling if you are a dollar off or late because of some reason or another is so stressful sometimes you just can’t deal. Student loan debt is making it impossible for families to grow and for this country to thrive. I have definitely paid more than 75 months of 1000 to sallie mae and I have not seen a dent in my loan….frustrating and demoralizing! I love my job, but I really work just to pay sallie Mae!!! Lame! Thank you for doing this I hope that this bill helps private loans since that’s what most of us have and Obamas student loan thing did not help many of us at all!! Even just taking people’s principle and refiguring it with interest rates that are low like no higher than 5percent would be helpful….this 13% thing is a killer!!
With 80,00 dollars in student loan debt, I can barely make rent, much less buy a house or save for the future.
I owed $52,000.00 (alot of interest)after garnishment I now owe $26,000.00 that has gone to a collection agency (NCO). I am now paying $256 monthly and I can’t buy a home (or rent a home in a good neighborhood) purchase a good vehicle because AES is still on my credit report ( i am being turned down when I apply for anything). Thank GOD I live 4 blocks from my job because I am a middleclass American walking to work!
It might be possible for piravte student loans, but it would probably depend on your credit rating score. The answer might be different for the federal student loans. However, if you are currently attending a community or junior college and will transfer to a 4 year college or university, the EFC should adjust to the new school. I recommend trying for some outside scholarships if possible to limit the need for student loans. I will include some free resources to locate them. First, the college’s financial aid office and website has a list of piravte scholarships offered from outside organizations and companies. Sometimes a college major’s website will list scholarships, too. Second, the public library has a book listing scholarships with some not even listed on the web. Third, try for the work study program on campus. It will provide both valuable work experience and income. Finally, I recommend joining several free membership scholarship search websites. There are scholarships for a variety of things including ethnicity, clubs, hobbies, and even wearing duct tape to the high school prom. Most are updated on a regular basis. Most offer a customized search based on information entered onto a form on the website. Good luck!
With the economy going down-spiral, it has become harder and harder to find a job. Many of us who graduated need jobs to pay off our loans, the fact that we can not find jobs readily and most organizations looking to employ look for specific things within a given degree, makes it so much more harder and very stressful. My wish is that we can be forgiven for our loan debt so that we can have a clear mind and be able to help build the economy and not charge up hospitol bills with depression medication. I am in hope that it can at least be cut down 50%!
Thanks for your time,
Yetunde Akinsulire
Look at the big picture: it was once possible, if not easy, to work your way through school. Now the financial sector, after stealing everything it can steal from the private sector, is going after the public sector — education, healthcare, even prisons. Look into the student loan business, and you will see the same abuses, and sometimes the same players that caused the Wall Street meltdown. And note thaat the countries that provide good and affordable education for their young people are going to be ahead of us economically in the next generation.
How can this country move forward if we don’t invest in our young peoples education? Doubling interest rates is like putting their education in front of the firing squad!
PLEASE don’t let this happen.
CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL, THERE ISNT A STUDENT ALIVE WHOS GONNA GO FOR DOUBLING THEIR LOAN PAYMENTS!
Thank you for listening.
Student loan debt has an undeniable and significant suppressive effect on economic growth. The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 directly addresses this enormous boot on the neck of the middle class and represents a glimmer of hope for millions of Americans who, with each passing day, find that the American Dream is more and more out of reach.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that Congress bring H.R. 4170, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012, up for consideration and commit to holding a straight, up-or-down vote on it this year. Thereafter, we, the undersigned, respectfully request that President Obama sign this legislation into law.
Please, pass this urgent legislation!
Unless you are married, have a depednent or a bachelor’s degree, you have to use your parent information on your FAFSA. It doesn’t make a bit of difference if your parents claim you or not. Federally subsidized loans are granted through the FAFSA. If you don’t need the deduction (if you don’t make enough $ to pay taxes), your parents will probably want to claim you. Good luck!
Lets make sure we go back far enough to help all the kids that are in dept with school loans. my kid is still trying to payback and live. You do not always get a job that makes the kid of money to start a life and pay huge loans because they demanded a large monthly payment instead of taking what ever the student could afford.
start helping students get rid of this debt so they can spend their money on helping grow our economy!! The 30 year olds won’t be buying homes, cars if they have thousands of dollars of school loans that will take them 40 years to pay! It won’t be the 55-60 year olds that will help this economy grow!!!!
PLEASE HELP OUR CHILDREN AND THE ECONOMY
I paid my own student loans off in nearly ten years. Even back in 1990, it was a huge burden. Now I have two daughters going to college and am unable to pay for all their costs. If interest rates increase and something isn’t done to help, it will be more of a burden for my kids. It’s past time to put something like this in place.
Does this bill include all students with loans or include just those who qualify for forgiveness under the present forgiveness program with public service jobs, teaching, nursing, and work in low income communities? I didn’t see this addressed in your frequently asked questions.
My son has private student loans charging up to 11% interest. This is outrageous in todays economic times.
This needs to be done. I’m graduating in a year and I am having a hard time looking for internships and jobs, even through extensive networking.
I am a 24-year old who had to work a full time job throughout my college career, even though I received a full scholarship. After 6 years I am finally graduating (the first in my family). I would like to continue my education,and go on to start a small business, however with over 30,000 in debt, I will have to put that off. This could change the lives of so many people.
So, on a full scholarship and working, how can you possibly have accumulated $30k of debt? Take a year off from school, work full time, live at home, pay off the debt and move on. Quit whining!
Thank you.
Absolutley not. Student loans and home loans do not look bad on your credit unlses they go into default. Make sure you pay them on time. Actually school loans are good for your credit. They show of history of good payment and creditors will be more likely to accept your next application. Credit cards with high credit limits look bad on your credit report, even if you pay the minimum every month on time. One or two cards with a lower limit that you keep paid up to date are GREAT for your credit report. Don’t pay off the total balance every month or you will not have a revolving credit history. Keep the balances low and pay more than the minimum. School loans are also good because they are notoious for low interest rates. Many people get student loans to pay off their higher interest credit cards, it looks better.
Erase the debt!
My son works three part time jobs and still can’t meet the payments on his student loan. I am retired and give him what support I can. Our whole family suffers from this usury.
Struggling to make large payments on student loan debt is crushing to so many of us, who although we may be working full time in our chosen fields, find ourselves currently making less money due to the tight economic times.
I am 35,000 dollars in debt! Please forgive loans!
Please pass this bill. I am currently a graduate student supported by Stafford Loans. Because of the proposed increase in the interest of the Stafford Loans, and the cuts to the Congressional budgets that will disqualify graduate students from receiving subsidized loans, I may not be able to complete my graduate degree program.
You won’t find a site/company that does this. Your best option for getnitg a student loan w/o going through too much hassle is to fill out a fafsa and wait for your school to send you an award package. You’ll receive government funds and will be able to defer loan payment until you get out of school.
I have worked 35 years in an inner city school district. I am retiring and still have student loans. My daughter has about $80,000 in student loans and a teaching degree with no job in her field. Please help. I was told that I was in a program to foregive my loans but this was not true.
Over the last 7 years my children have been in college and they will graduate this year the debt they have collected is horrible. The interest rates 7yrs ago was a little over 4% interests rising to the highest level of 8.5%. Our home mortgage rate is lower our car loan rates have been lower. I thought a college education is an investment into our future. Tuition in our state has risen over 43% in seven years.How can our children afford this? The rich can pay cash the poor have more grants and the middle class get loans. My kids will owe around 100,000. when they graduate and that does not count all the interest that will have built up. Not fair.
Please help students that struggle each day to find jobs so that they can acquire the quality of life that they deserve as citizens. Students do not go to college to come out with huge amounts of student loan debt that will take a life time to pay off.
Students need assistance by creating opportunities and ways to reduced and also forgive student loans. Thank you very much for your help and cooperation in this matter. Sincerely, Debra Warren
Pass this please.
Please help reduce the amount of student loan debt. I don’t spend any money right now because I have to use all of it to pay back the 50,000 in loans that I needed to get a good job. The government bailed out the auto industry and the banks that screwed everything up – why not bail out the working Americans citizens that you can tax for the rest of their lives. Look at it this way, I got a job that puts me in a higher tax bracket than most americans – you’ll make your money back and more over the course of my lifetime in taxes alone – not to mention all the extra money I’ll be spending on a house, cars, travel etc.
This is a great way to look at it. Especially the last two sentences!
Get a job and pay your own student loans back. Me and my wife paid ours off with out anyhelp. You signed an agreement to pay them back, so stop being lazy and do something for your self and stop asking for hand outs. Lazy bums!!!
Well, good for you! Obviously, you were lucky enough to get very good jobs (which no longer exist) or you had very little in outstanding loans — perhaps you had grants or help from mom and dad. I would love to pay my loans back. Unfortunately, I’ve been hit hard by the economy paycheck-wise and just do not clear the money needed to make the necessary payments and actually still live my life. It is the interest that is killing the majority of us. I would be happy paying back on the principal over the next 23 years remaining on my working life, but that won’t happen because of the interest charges. Nothing, absolutely nothing, goes to the principal amount. When you can’t get a loan for a house, or a car, or even a credit card with a $1,000 limit for emergencies because of the student loans sitting on your credit report, something is wrong. College is supposed to be uplifting, not demoralizing. Walk a mile in our shoes and then maybe you’ll feel different referring to us as “Lazy bums”. I guarantee you not one person supporting this bill woke up one morning and decided to go to college with the intention of never paying for it! I am happy for you and your wife that you were able to pay everything back. It sounds like that was a while ago. It’s not the same today. I have a masters and am working at a job that requires no more than I learned in high school. If I knew what the economy had in store, I never would have gone on to college to become an indentured servant to Sallie Mae.
I pay Sallie Mae $814.00 a month without the help of a husband or wife. Who are you calling lazy.
I find your remark ignorant. You are calling my best friend a lazy bum while she is working two jobs as well as raising two children as a single parent. I could go into more detail, however I feel that no matter what is said your mind is made up to the plight of people struggling to make their monthly payments. I find it sad that you are so small minded.
I agree but most likely you guys were able to repay your loans at a time that we weren’t financially unstable. Gas, Rent, Transportation, food is going up up up but we dont see raises in our paycheck to pay back these student loans.
I am a 27 year old female. I am diagnosed with a mental illness which makes it impossible for me to work. I have been in and out of hospitals and treatment programs. I am currently on 4 medications. I have also undergone 9 treatments of electroconvulsive therapy. I have a Master’s degree in Counseling, which I cannot do since I am going through counseling myself. I have 45,000 in student loan debt which I will never be able to pay back due to my condition. That doesn’t include my medical bills. I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me. I feel sorry for you that you would post a comment so insensitive.
When I graduated with a teaching degree in “93 it was about 6 months before I got a job in my field. I was a single mother and working part-time at Wal’Mart to support myself and my two children. I could not afford to make the $600 a month payment on my student loans. I contacted my lender, Oklahoma Guaranteed Student Loan, for help but they refused to lower or defer my payments. Instead, they went to court and put my loan in default. As soon as I obtained a teaching job my paycheck was garnished and my federal and state income tax refunds were seized by Oklahoma Guaranteed Student Loan (OGSL). That was almost 18 years ago and my paychecks are still being garnished and my state and federal income tax returns are still being seized by OGSL. I have contacted OGSL many times over the years but they have refused to work with me in any manner. What’s worse, my original loan amount has almost tripled because of the interest, late fees, and attorney fees that OGSL has added to the amount that I owe and
everything that I have paid to OGSL over the past 18 years has been applied to these fees, which they continue to add. None of my payments have applied to the principle balance and the amount I owe continues to increase each year because of all the late fees and handling fees OGSL continues to add to my balance. If I live to be 150 I will never be able to pay off this loan!
Youth should be able to afford to attend college. They are the future, citizens, workers, and leaders. The most recent College Graduates are having a very difficult time finding employment, or jobs that pay a living wage. Some are going through bankruptcy.
I urge Congress to pass the DREAM Act as well.
It is shameful that young people (and even people beyond 50 like myself) are stuck with thousands of dollars in student loan debt. This debt cripples people personally/financially but it is also a drag on the nation’s economy. We can bailouts coporations and give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires but we can’t help folks with crippling student debt. Come on Congress, it is time to do something!
Must do.
we should have made these loans interest-free from the beginning.
How can we build a healthy economy while trampling on people who pursue education?
It’s a sad time in America when young people have to decide whether they want to go to school and be in debt for 30 years after they graduate, or buy a house. This country is falling apart at the seems and all politicians seem to care about is trashing the other side and repeating talking points. It’s getting to the point where I’m ashamed of my country.
I agree.
I agree! It’s about time these politicians actually do something that is beneficial instead of building themselves up and putting others down. It is my prayer that that this student debt is forgiven.
This is not the time to be increasing loans on students. It discourages education and what we need is more educated people in this country, not less.
Student loan debt is a huge burden to the economy, it prevents people from making investments starting businesses and being able to spread money around by buying things.
if erased it will improve spending small business and overall economic growth
I support this bill so it can be a law!!!
My name is Tanya D. Byington. I am 43 years old. I have worked for 25 years as a hospice home health aide making less than $22,000 a year. I work 2 in part time jobs with no benefits. I thought that getting an education was supposed to help me get a good job so I could support myself better. I wanted health care insurance and wanted to save for retirement. I graduated with a degree in American sign language. I wanted to become an interpreter. A year before I graduated, I found out I have a processing disability and cannot process quickly enough to interpret. A year after I graduated I am saddled with an $85,000 education debt with little skill to find a better paying job and no way to pay for a different major! This bill would be my lifeline because at 43 my future looks bleak without it. I planned on working in the social services field because it is what I was born to do. Without the ability to go back to school, I will have to stay in the field I am in. The problem with this is that my body can’t take it. I have 3 places in my back where my spine is starting to deteriorate. I have no way to fix it. No health plan, no retirement, no skills to get a better paying job. Please help me!
Sincerely,
Tanya D. Byington
This one of the many things WE ALL need
I am 28 years old. I graduated college in Dec. of 2007. I borrowed 38,000 and now owe over 50,000. I have been searching and searching for a decent job. I work part-time at Home Depot making less than 10 an hour. Thank the Lord I still live at home. I have no health insurance and I struggle with moderate Crohn’s disease. Things are getting tough. Im not asking for hand-outs or anything. I believe I should pay my debts, but this has gone WAY too far. I was told there would be many job opportunities when I graduated. I feel like I was tricked into spending money. This must be passed so many can have a fresh start. Many students have worked VERY hard for their degree. The government hands out money and things to those who do not work (I know there are folks who need it, but many are taking advantage though). I have been in desperate prayer to be free of this huge debt. I pray this is the answer to it.
I’m all for this… BUT… What about those of us who were conscious of the debt we were taking out, decided to budget for schools that are more affordable (public over private), and decided to work in addition to school so that we could pay for much of it on our own without having to borrow? I haven’t read the entire bill, but if this is only benefiting those who borrowed their way through, it should be revised to include benefits to everyone who PAID for a higher education.
To even consider a bill like this shows just how low our country has devolved. It is not the job of the American people to pay for your education. There are several stories of distress on this page, how would it make it better for you if instead of paying only your loan your are forced to participate in the debt of thousands, perhaps millions, of others? It’s not going to get you a better job, make your payments lower, improve your life, etc. It will only cripple our economy even further to strap yet another debt on top of the piling bills our country has yet to pay. If you want to further your education, be a responsible adult and take on your own debt. Now that, my fellow Americans, is patriotism.
I’m a recent graduate of Michigan State University with a studnet loan outstanding balance of about $65,000. I am required to pay a minimum balance of $650/mo. seriously restricting my standard of living and forcing me to live paycheck to paycheck making ends meet. If I were forgiven of my student loan debt, $650 per month would go back into the community and strenghthing the economy. This also would allow me to live a longer and healthier life providing good services to this countried community.
I now owe more that the cost of a new house. I have a Master’s Degree and in this economy can only find nominal or under-employed work. I would love to buy a house but my student loans are dragging my credit score into the toilet. I had fully intended to pay them back, but when the economy started to plunge os did my income. I am now struggling just to keep a roof over my head and food on my table. I totally support this bill and would pray that others would remember that this will “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” (US Constitution) If anything shoould be considered a right, it should be education.
Oh and I paid the first set of loans off. I put off finishing my education. Now that I am finished, I cannot afford this debt and take care of my family
Twelve years after graduation, I am now able to pay my loans but immediately upon graduating I could not and I put my loans into forebearance. I was not informed that I should pay accruing interest until after my loan balance grew by $10,000! Then the person I spoke with at the DOE said, “Oh, didn’t they tell you that you should have . . .” I could not have gone to school without the assistance of federal loans and I knew going in that I would be paying them back. What I do think would be fair would be to drop the interest rate for everyone. My interest rate is currently 8.25%!
The problem with this legislation, like most similar legislation is that it only caters to a very specific group of people. I have over $50,000 in student loans, and I have been paying on them for years, and yet the principal amount is still the same as its always been. I will probably pay for the rest of my life. But since I make more than a certain amount of money, or because I’m not in some minority group I would not qualify. Look at this verbiage in the bill, “The Secretary shall establish procedures for annually determining the borrower’s eligibility for 10/10 Loan Repayment”…. That puts a whole lot of power in the hands of one person, not to mention making the criteria VERY vague. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for this type of legislation. I think student loan debt is awful, but it needs to be more evenly applied and spelled out in the beginning. Not this whole ‘we’ll figure out the details after you pass the law’ crap.
When will our government – “of, by, and for the people” – bail out We the People??
Let’s not forget about all the cosigners to our loans – my parents and friends. They were the reason I was able to get my student loan because like most people, I alone could not qualify. I received my degree in 2008, and so far, am unable to find a job in my field. I am now underemployed in an industry totally unrelated. I have now claimed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. These loans are now in collection and default and are affecting my cosigner’s credit and ability to function financially. Student loans, by not being dischargeable in bankruptcy, are hurting more than just the students they belong too, and are effecting way more people than you think! It’s effect on the whole of the economic recover is therefore more widespread than anyone thinks!
I’ll support this law if they’ll give me back all the money i paid out of pocket to go to college. As someone who has zero student loan debt, I don’t feel it fair that they would give people who racked up debt a free education, when some of us had to bust our ass to work and pay for school. Nobody held a gun to your head and forced you to take out a loan, if you didn’t have the money to go to the college you went to, perhaps a less expensive option would have been better for you. I understand that our generation was under the impression that 4 year degree was golden ticket to a stable career, and that is not the case. I’m sorry you people have debt, but it’s debt that YOU incurred and debt that YOU are responsible for. I have no problems with freezing interest rates on student loans or even capping the amount of interest paid on a student loan, but to forgive all of that debt is not only fiscally irresponsible, but a slap in the face to people who worked and paid for their education the hard way.
I assume that the primary sponsors of this bill are not the champions of indebted students, but of the big lenders who are realizing that without a Federal handout, the billions of dollars in predatory loans they have made will never be paid off, and of the for-profit educational institutions who depend on Federally subsidized loans to continue operation.
Please vote a huge resounding NO on this bill unless it is amended to include real reform of the student loan industry:
(1) Eligibility for loan subsidies to be tied to an educational institution’s graduation and employment rates
(2) Eligibility for loan subsidies to be tied to the percentage of an educational institution’s recent graduates who are making their loan payments
(3) Eligibility for loan subsidies to be cut off for banks that make too many bad loans
(4) Real Federal oversight of banks who offer subsidized or guaranteed student loans
Banks don’t give business loans unless there is a business plan that offers a reasonable chance of loan repayment, the Federal government should not be underwriting predatory (and often discriminatory) loans that enable people to attend useless for-profit educational programs.
The cost of higher education is overwhelming for most American. This is wrong and outrageous! The 1% has gamed the political system and are sucking up all the wealth in our country while leaving the rest of us with ever-increasing debt. Romney, the .1%, thinks that we should all congratulate him for his success. Success? He pays half in % of taxes of what we pay. He has circumvented the inheritance laws leaving his children $100 mil. When I was a teen in the 1960s, the 1% paid 90% in taxes and increased their wealth: the cost of higher education was affordable for the average wage earner; state schools cost about $500 a semester; state schools in CA were free for in-state students; student grant money was abundant. Romney, Paul Ryan, and the rest of these social Darwinists are callous and entitled self-serving AHs! They want to increase their wealth at our expense.
I am 50 years old with a massive student loan debt. When I graduated college many years ago I thought I’d be able to find a good job so that I could pay off the loans and still be able to live a decent life. I too had my loans put in default by the state of Louisiana. My efforts, after finding a decent job as a teacher, which really doesn’t pay that well, trying to work with Louisiana met with derision and demands of payments in excess of $600 a month, plus a demand of $3000 upfront that I could never afford just to get started. The garnishments took more than a quarter of my paycheck every time. After 11 years of payments the principal was still the same. I’m unemployed now, looking for another teaching job, but unless I can get more cooperation from the state of Louisiana, I’ll be dead and the loans will never get paid off, and I’ll be stuck living a life of need. I find it distressing that we’ve paid out billions and billions of dollars to corporations and banks that were a big part of the cause of the great recession, yet, for the piddly amount of my student loans by comparison I can get no help and no relief.
I went to college later in life to provide a good example for my son and also give us a life above poverty. I always worked two jobs, even while attending school full-time, a single mother with no support. I was proud of that fact and excelled in school making the deans list and honor roll and never falling below a 3.25 G.P.A. A semester short of completing my masters degree, life took a downward turn. I now suffer from a work injury, and no job, income, retirement, insurance. Absolutely nothing. I’ve lost my home, but thankful to have very good friends. I fight daily for help, just to exist, fear, stress and depression all set in and then the bill collector comes calling! I’m sorry, had I known this were to be the outcome, I wouldn’t have tried so hard for the American dream only to live a nightmare everyday after.
I have been paying faithfully my $60k in student loans for the past 10 years.
In these past 10 years, the principal balance has only gone down $10k.
the interest paid during this time period has been almost $25k!!
Goldman sachs got billions in bailout and we the people get the shaft!!
STUDENT LOAN FORGIVENESS NOW!!!
This is a great example of the “no brainer.” We need this student loan money circulating throughout the economy, buying homes, creating jobs, not filling up the coffers of multi-million dollar banks/investment firms and/or the pockets of the fat cats.
Last year the government took over all my VSAC loans, this year they plan to increase the interest rate. Not only do I have incredible debt but now they intend to charge more for borrowing the money. So you think we have a shot at getting the government to forgive us? Sending out Reiki and planning for a miracle.
Namaste
Julia
I was suckered into a two year program that had over a year of prerequisites. I was a single mom trying to better myself and stand on my own two feet when I graduated as our colleges promised I would be making about $42K per year with extremely good health and investment benefits. That was an outright lie! I graduated in 2009, got a 0-hour/per diem job making about $50 per WEEK about 13 months later and then another 0-hour job an hour away. We had to file bankruptcy in ’09 and the attorney was not informed about changes to the laws which now allow you to claim student loans and we lost our home. I was unemployed with no claim to unemployment benefits for over a year. When the year was up, the lenders came knocking and we had to find a way to pay our loans – we borrowed money to hang onto the condo but lost it anyway.
After losing my home and a year later still not having an income to speak of, I went back to college – as all our colleges recommended because it was the best way to be more marketable.
It is now 3 years since I graduated and I am STILL only 0-hour because nobody is hiring radiographers (a very specialized field) only 0-hour jobs. Now they all want you to be certified and have two yrs experience in CT in order to get a job in Medical Imaging.
My worst loans are private but I also have FASFA loans. My current husband and I have almost $90,000 in loans between us, including my car loan. My husband’s full time job after earning his BA is not enough to support us. Our income combined is not enough to support us. We are stuck living with my in-laws and all of our belongings and furniture are in a storage unit smelling now of mildew and we have had things rust or get eaten by mice – storage is $110 per month.
We are middle-aged, have used up ALL of our savings trying to survive and because our loan payments and the cost of gas amount to what a rental would cost, we can’t even rent an apartment. (my husband drives 3 hours a day for work because there weren’t jobs close to us) We want to move closer to our jobs, but we can’t pay the cost of moving and setting up residence.
With our degrees and experience, we should have been able to earn enough to keep my home and pay ALL our bills. Because colleges tell you that there are great jobs at great income and benefit levels when you get this degree and the reality is as devastating as it is, we are just surviving to pay loans.
PLEASE Pass this law AND include private loans. As laws are today, you have NO protection from private lenders….they can take you to court and get 25% of your income even if you need it just to survive like us with extremely high medical costs. I have Diabetes, migraines, allergies and now asthma while my son has allergies and asthma and my husband has other health issues.
Rich families can pay for their children to go to school because they have plenty of money (sometimes thanks to not paying tax at proportionally fair rates). Poor people (sometimes not really poor because they hide away their income)get help from government and institutional need-based financial aids. Meanwhile students from middle class families are left to struggle and borrow enormous amount of money to fund their schooling while their parent bear the brunt of the country’s tax revenue. It is not fair. If we cannot do things like many poorer countries: use federal tax to fund for free tuition for all, regardless of their income (Sweden , for example, does this)at least we should pass this act to help hard working students from hard working, tax paying families to start their working life with a bit less of financial burden and a more optimistic view of future. Please consider this act and help the people who will work for our nation’s future.
Sincerely,
Vinh Holmqvist
I served in the United States Navy from 1987-1994. While in boat camp i sign up for the Montgomery G.I. collage money. i paid into it $100.00/ per/month for 12months. A total of $1200.00. but because i waited too long to apply for it i lost it. Why can’t i use that benefit to pay off my student loans.
When are the banks going to stop using the middle and lower wage earners as indentured servants?! When the government stops allowing them to. The best things in our great America are socialized, the fire departments, the libraries and public education. It should be free from start to finish like many European countries. We pay taxes, why shouldn’t college be free for Americans too? The military gets too much of our tax payers dollars. It’s time to give our kids a bail out!
My less than $50,000. loans I got in over 10 years have increased ANOTHER $56,000. in INTEREST. I will never make enough to make the payments. The Student Loan Forgiveness Act is my only possible hope of being able to live without this enormous burden. I was a single mother, trying to get an education to become employable, yet, still cannot afford to make these payments! With $56,000 interest, plus the $50,000 borrowed to get a Masters Degree, I will forever be in debt, and unable to start a private practice due to the high payments demanded.
My name is Barry Peterson. I am 50 years old. I began my education in 1980 and was unable to continue due to onset of persistent and serious mental illness and a form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. As a high school student, I became a member of the A honor roll community in my private school. My parents made a good living as a real estate certified specialist attorney; my step mom made her profession as a nurse anesthetist who traveled all over the world for conferences and volunteer programs, as well as being a highly paid nurse at local hospitals in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area of Minnesota.
I was determined to go to college to later become an attorney and then work for the U.S. Department of State regional analyst. I have been fluent at times in four languages. Due to the intensity of my problems and the drain they placed on my parents, they sent me to a cultural boarding school in Europe for a year. Please note that I took out loans for my first year in college. I didn’t return to college until 1986. I worked part-time, went to school fulltime, and continued to take out loans. After time in and out of school, I graduated with a B.A. in history, having hoped to go on to law school.
The job market does not reward historians. I worked at restaurants without tips. I was unemployed much of the time due to illness. I eventually had all of my loans bought by Sallie Mae. I deferred payments, and put them into forbearance, also. My original principle was $72,000.00. As a result of my illness, I was unable to work, and with the onset of the end of my deferments, and the thought of forebearance, my health worsened.
I sought an application for complete and total discharge of my $118,000.00 loan balance, and was granted the discharge, which will happen on July 7th or later this year. I have never owned a car, a house, or a dog. I have never been married, had kids, or gone on vacations other than those when I was studying in foreign countries to gain fluency in other languages.
If you are disabled or know someone who is, and if you cannot pay your debts, please contact your Member of Congress. Check with the reference librarian at your local library for his or her contact information. You will need letters of support from your physician or psychiatrist. If you are seeing a therapist on a regular basis, they can write the letter and have the psychiatrist sign off on it.
Fortunately, my dad is a lawyer and helped write the letter in a way the bureaucrats understand. Please do not lose hope if you cannot maintain employment due to a disability. Follow through with my instructions. Once the loan is discharged, your credit rating will likely go up.
With best wishes, profound respect, and hope that Congress will act favorably on this bill — and make receiving and achieving higher education a public expense instead of a private one,
I am,
Barry N. Peterson
Minneapolis, MN
UNEDITED 12:56 a.m., April 27, 2012
I support this cause 100% – doesn’t mean we’re dead beat student loan payers that’s for sure! I’m still paying my loans 20 years later and am going back to school for a career change. I’ve been unemployed longer than I ever would imagined and it seems as if it’s my only option. I can only imagine. Once I get another degree, I hope I will be able to at least pay my rent. Afterall,I increased my knowledge to invest in a better for my family and our country.
I’ve been out of school for 6 sum years with a loan debt of 145,000 dollars I only attended for 2 1/2 years because my loan cut me off from receiving anymore money because they tired to tell me that I went to school for 5 years which is a load of crap. I have not been able to pay any of it and it keeps building up and up making me not able to get a car a house or anything. I cant pay because I have no been able to find any jobs due this economy right now plus making a minimum wage won’t do crap to dense that cause they expect me to pay 1500 a month nothing lower. So im in a slump of never getting rid of this, i believe college was the worst thing I could of ever done for myself.
I too have not paid a single dime on my loans because my alma mater rebated my scholarship without notifying me post graduation. They said that I received too much funding after contacted them via email. I have my degree but I cannot find a decent job bc I need to get my Masters Degree just to be eligible for a decent job in my field. My loans are steady accruing and I can’t afford to go to my alma mater to correct this matter. I’ve sent emails made phone calls and still no success. I was unemployed for TWO years!!! Most post grads aren’t even considered for the job if you don’t have experience or lack skills. Entry Level seems like a thing of the past!
Its hard trying to pay student loans, and being a single dad with two girls.
Pass this act. Why are learning institutions so expensive?!
That is the problem. Text books that sell for $250 at the university bookstore and cost $50 to rent from online sources. Higher education has become a racket.
Please pass this important bill.
Education should be free. Stop using Capitalism to enslave the youth of this Country. Congress: Shame on you!
I have been paying student loans off and on since 1994. I am also a professor at a two-year college, and as such, a public servant. Working with students every day – many of whom leave public schools for proprietary institutions, because they cannot get the classes they need here – leave school (with or without a degree) saddled with debt. Moreover, they often have no hope of a job, let alone one that will allow them to pay off their debt. Even students who attend non-profit institutions have enormous debt-loads when they complete their degrees, which puts them at an enormous disadvantage as they enter the workforce.
In short, if we really care about a well-educated citizenry, we will make higher education as close to free as possible. This doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be competitive (in a variety of senses of that word), but it does mean that we understand education as a public (and private) good, not a commodity to be bought and sold like a hamburger…
I am in full support of this bill. Without a higher education, you can’t reduce poverty.
I went to college later in life, as a single parent. Because I worked full time and went to school on the weekends, I did not receive grants, only loans. Now I will be paying for my education until I retire. That is,if I can retire in twenty years, because Social Security will probably be gone also.
This bill would help so many to at least have a chance at contributing to the economy and be productive while still leaving some responsibility to the borrower to pay back 10% of their income for 10 years so they are not just getting a total write-off! This way they can see a light at the end of the tunnel. It will also help us parents that co-signed and that have worked and contributed to our economy all our lives not to loose everything we worked for. We co-signed and since then my husband lost his job because of economy cut-backs. Gas and home heating oil is almost $4 per gallon. We are struggling to stay afloat and now I can’t enjoy a single day of life because of worrying as to what is going to happen since we can’t pay these loans!
Please let this bill pass so the working middle class can breath again. I truly feel it will be better for the economy as without the larger amount of student dept hanging over soooo many, people will be able to afford to purchase homes, automobiles and who knows…may even be able to afford vacations and contribute to businesses they visit!
The people in the exit interview at my school told me I would have about $250 a month in student loans upon graduation. It turns out it was several times that amount. By the time I found a job that let me pay my bills my payment was just over $1000 a month. I paid it, and the interest rate dropped, so now I pay $814 (six years later). For an associates degree. I have done hours and hours of research for years trying to find a way to refinance or anything else to help. Nothing. I’m not looking for some magical fairy to make my debt disappear. I just want the government of the “Best Country in the World” to recognize that it is letting financial institutions that deal in private student loans steal from people who are just trying to live the American Dream. If all my loans were government loans I wouldn’t have this problem. If I could refinance my private loans in to government loans it would change my life. Who knows what I could have become if not for this crippling debt. I may have decided to be a doctor and cured diseases. Who knows if the person with the key to curing diabetes or Aids or cancer has given up on that because the student loan debt they have accumulated has ruined their life. Fixing this could lead to a better future for America in more ways than one.
Please help us!
Seeing as so many in this country believe that we have a moral obligation, based on he Christian definition of such to pay our debts, I would like to remind you of a little Bible verse that we seem to ignore. Deut 15:1-2 At the end of every seven years you shall grant a remission of debts. 2“This is the manner of remission: every creditor shall release what he has loaned to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother, because the LORD’S remission has been proclaimed.”
So, maybe, just maybe, we ought to look at the Bible as our example, seeing as SO many Republicans pledge allegiance to it.
Oh, and as for the moral obligation. What about the banks who continue to charge fees, jack up interest rates, mis manage their own funds and receive BILLIONs of dollars of tax payers money to be bailed out, then give their CEOs millions of dollars in bonuses? Hmmm? What about people like Donald Trump who have filed bankruptcy 4 times? I wonder if I can get a credit card with an unlimited balance and transfer my student loans to the credit card, pay off the student loans, then file bankruptcy on the credit card, or take out a mortgage line of credit, and file bankruptcy on the mortgage? There has to be allowances for the student loan problem! Especially when 50% of college graduates can not find full time sustainable employment!
I have a loan that i have been paying for 35 years, and still paying for it presently. This loan is more than paid for, yet Dept of Education took a judgement
out against me, which I am told does not allow me to negoitate a settlement amount
yet the interest continues I make the payments, and seeing myself coming out of this. Tis is legal loan-sharking at its best. The tax refund that they took, the stimules money that we all recieved, they took, what more do I have. If the government can bail out banks and large corporations, help us too. Ispeak for the young the old and the in between. Please pass this bill.
My original student loans were for $32,000. I’ve paid around $15,000 and now my loan is $45,000! I was advised to consolidate my loans. BIG MISTAKE! Now I’m locked in at over 8% interest for the life of the loan and NO ONE will do anything about it. I’d like to pay back the money I borrowed, but the US Government LOAN SHARK fees……..NO! How about giving me credit for what I’ve paid and reduce my interest to 3%? I’ve got a friend who’s interest rate is 2%! I was an older non-trad student when I got my degree. At the current rate, and making $380 per month payments (which stretches my budget) I will be paying my student loans with my social security…..NO KIDDING!
If my student loan debt is forgiven, I promise to spend the $300 a month that’s being garnished from my wages and crippling me financially at local businesses only for 3 months.
May, God bless each and every one of you will keep you in my prays. vote for who you think will do the most for us, I’m retired but i do feel for my fellow Americans.
Please.
I have a load of student loans. And I am piling on more in hopes to actually be able to use my degree by adding an MBA. I have a degree in Human Resources however I can’t get a job as I don’t have the experience, well I can’t get the experience without a job. I feel as if I wasted over 4 years and lots of money getting that degree. I can only hope the money I am spending on the MBA will pay off.
I suppport this bill. Please pass it… Thank you.
I went back to school later in life to better myself and can’t get ahead because of the student loan debt. I’m also unable to help my two children with their education because of it. They will have a tremendous amount of student loan debt as well. This seems to be a cycle that will continue to spin if something is not done.
Although going to college for music education was a great experience it also left me with a huge debt. Back then I was ignorant about the way the student loan system worked and about the real-world possibilities of generating enough income in my chosen field to support myself and pay the student loan. But of course no one would tell you this at the college counseling center. Fast forward to now, where this loan has more than doubled from its original amount simply because I’ve had to, over the years, put it on forbearance due to hard economic times. The interest rate on this thing is absolutely ludicrous and it has become painfully evident that, unless I win the lottery, this loan will always be there, staring at me with a curious grimace while I struggle to keep me and my family afloat. If I’d known then what I know now I would’ve NEVER taken out these loans. I
Besides the Bill to forgive, we need to remove the ability of the agencies to garnish our wages and our IRS if we do not pay the amount THEY say we must. I would pay on this loan until I died if I had to but would pay what I could AFFORD and still have a life. Not a luxurious life but the ability to live in decent, safe housing, have running water and electricity and afford food. Also, I cannot understand how their ability to keep charging interest like they do so you NEVER get it paid is NOT LOAN SHARKING.
I entered college at the age of 53 because after working in the HR field for more than 20 years I was tired of being passed over for senior management positions because I did not have a college degree. It has been an exciting and challenging run but I am now saddened and SCARED at the aspect of graduating when this should be a glorious time! I work for a small non-profit organization in the inner-city, dedicated to helping adults to become self-sufficient citizens. My meager salary does not allow for the amount of debt that I have in student loans. While I am not opposed to paying something – this current system does not work!!! Please help us!
I went to a good school and got a good job after college. I work hard and love what I do for a living…BUT…I cannot afford to buy a house or a car because I’m drowning in student debt! How is it that I do everything right as a model citizen but can’t even move out of my parents’ house because I’m paying high-interest loans???!!! This is ridiculous. And just think about it…I’m the LUCKY one because I have a job; Most recent college grads don’t. This is very sad for our country.
I been paying on a student loan since 1988 it has been bought and sold now 3 times my interest rate keeps rising and my initial loan of 3800. dollars exceed 11,000 dollars i am almost 60 and this is getting to b e impossible please help!
Please, I urge there should be considersation that the slavery to the student loans be ceased. I mean, aren’t we suppose to be obtaining better jobs with better salaries and benefits? This situation is getting out of hand and hoping that it would get fixed ASAP!!! Listen to us, listen to you people!
Sincerely,
Patricia Alzate-Ocampo
Please pass this bill and bring some hope to those who are buried in student loan debt.
I paid off my student loan while I was making $10 / hr 20 years ago. Can I get my money back? I certainly could use it.
High Education is very important and should be accessible. I believe the debt should be forgiven because a University degree has been falsely advertised as key to a better career/job.
I went back to school 10 years after getting a A.S degree to get a B.S ,Today i am in debt from the loans and disabled.This bill would greatly improve my life.Because of my disability I cannot work in my field of degrees.
we all need help with how today is…….
I think is HORRIBLE. I made or tried to make the best decisions for my finances over the years and was careful about the amount of student loans I took out and perhaps that is why it took me 8 years to graduate. I think you have a responsibility to take a look at the debt you have signed up for and if it becomes to much – then quit going to school. If I would have kept going I could have been 30K plus in debt, but no I did the right thing and now because others have not done the right thing – they get thier loans forgiven. Not Fair. Perhaps the government can just write me a check for the money that I should have taken out.
Almost like the Mortgage Crisis… because I was responsibile and purchased what I could – I recieved little help from modification – however if I would have purchased the bigger house – I would have the same mortgage payment with a three car garage, pool, and granite. GO USA!
I’m assuming you didn’t do so well in your grammar classes…
This would make all the differnce in my life.
We truly need this bill to be passed. Please pass the word on!! Please talk to your friends, family, and community about 4170!
I owed $60,000 upon leaving school. I agree with all statements above and fully support this bill.
Most of us over-borrowed relative to the actual value of the degree. Here is the detail first of all:
$50k of public, $90k of private (> 9% interest) = MBA in 5 years
$75k of public for my wife over similar period = MBA in 5 years
I was thinking tonight how did we get there…
SF Bay Area rent: ~$1300/mo. for a decent safe 2 bed apartment near campus x 12 mo. x 5 years = $78,000 alone.
College costs: my wife about $60k of tuition/costs for online classes, for me about $8k x 5 years = $40k tuition/costs = $100,000.
So we borrowed about $215,000 and paid about $180,000, the remainder being other living expenses vs. some income from part time work during school (but mostly, extra classes instead of work to get it done faster). We didn’t penny pinch but neither did we spend extravagantly.
The cost:
> 1600$ / mo. from the private loans (mostly interest). I gave up on that after deferring for a couple years; they were not federally backed loans and so are basically regular consumer debt, albeit a very bad gamble by the lender. For those with federally backed private loans – you are in even a worse position if you cannot discharge it or let it lapse.
IBR payments for a married couple are based on income: something like $400/mo if we both were doing it, but we really cannot afford it right now (one unemployed, the other underpaid).
The benefit:
Very little. I am not able to make any more money than I did before because companies want experience, college education is just something you MUST have on the resume to even be considered now for white collar. The MBA hasn’t “commanded a higher wage” in the current economy until you have 5, 10 years of post-grad experience – those experienced people lost their jobs and are competing with you.
** The bottom line on why this bill makes sense to me:
~10% of income (or less / none if you lost your job) for 10 years is reasonable. Lowering the interest rate on student loans is reasonable. What this means is you pay in proportion to what the education is supposed to do: increase your income. If it’s not making much difference, then the cost should also fall proportionally. 25 years is just too much for people to get ahead in high cost areas where the standard calculations don’t fit well and where the degree didn’t help, or that can’t really for whatever reason do the 10% (but I think most people can once we get out of this recession). Still, we want finality: 10 years and it will be done one way or the other, not half of the rest of my life. Also, this policy should apply to all loans that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy (ie, those that are government underwritten).
After losing our jobs and being severely underemployed for the past 2 years, my husband and I recently declared bankruptcy. That decision was not taken lightly as the process is demanding and demeaning. Nevertheless, with the thought that we would come out of it with a”fresh start,” we proceeded. We have lost our home, much of our “stuff,” and our debts were discharged,BUT not the Student PLUS loans we took out for our kids college education. Those apparently are with us forever. We lose our house, but not those loans? Something is very wrong with this picture.
Student loans are not able to be discharged in bankruptcy, that is correct. It has been that way since the laws were changed in 1998.
Please. It’s a sad time in America when young people have to decide whether they want to go to school and be in debt for 30 years after they graduate, or buy a house. This country is falling apart at the seems and all politicians seem to care about is trashing the other side and repeating talking points.
Please help, will be graduating in December 2012 as an Elementary Teacher and don’t know how I will possibly be able to pay my students loans. Especially if I can’t even find a teaching position!
Two days ago, I graduated with a Bachelors degree from an excellent university in the Midwest but with a debt of around $150,000. Honestly, I feel punished for having gone to school. Why not help students out who are in this predicament? It’s time we actually honor those who are pursuing higher knowledge to better themselves for society.
Does this mean that if I make $140k in adjusted gross income, but owe $130k in student loans, I’m not included? I’ve paid $24k in loans each of the last 3 years and still owe $120k…It would be inconceivable that I would be left out just because I’ve managed to make a decent living. My salary is relative to my loans, and I’m still falling behind like everyone else. I’m already unable to claim student loan interest on my taxes, and it would be the final dagger to be left out if this were to pass, please make this applicable to all!!!!!
We need this bill! Jobs are NOT paying what our education costs!
biggest mistake ever got the student loan please forgive the loan
I haven’t been able to find anything in my degree. I feel extremely frustrated and stressed due to the massive debt looming over my head, and feel my time in college was a waste. Please pass this bill!
My husband and I are both have our doctorate degrees in physical therapy. We went to school for 7 years. There is a misconception that therapists are well paid. We each make about 50,000 a year and we work in a rural area. We have about 225,000 in student loan debt and will pay 30% of our income for the next 30 years to pay off our student loans. Our student loans carry higher interest rates than our mortgage or car payments and we do pay more on our student loans than for the mortgage on our house. We are not able to invest in the economy because we can not afford to go out or buy things. What is frustrating is that in 10 years, we will have paid back the original amounts that we borrowed but would still have another 20 years to pay off the interest. That is money that we could be directly investing into the economy. I actually encourage younger people away from higher education because of the burden of student loans and even though I love my job and provide a valuable service to help others, I can’t help but feel that maybe it just wasn’t worth it. The education system is so overpriced and continues to rise, and all while student loan interest rates continue to increase. My husband and I want to start a family soon, but we are faced with a hard reality that we may not be able to afford childcare and would never be able to save money to help them through college, because we would still be paying on our loans. HR4170 would bring hope back to those burdened by student loan debt. My husband and I will be praying every night for this bill to pass.
Try going to Chiropractic school! You will leave with at least $140k-$220k in loans and at 6.8 apr, and the standard repayment program is around $3,000-$4,000 I’ve got my work cut out for me!
I have been paying student loans for 10 years, and after obtaining my MBA my payments stand to take at least another 10 years to pay. The education system no longer values the service they offer, as they clearly value the monetary gain they benefit from. This needs to stop. Please pass the Loan Forgiveness bill.
I support pass this Initiative. If not all amount forgiven then at least a large percentage.
Forgiving all student loan debt would equal nearly $1 trillion in cost and sounds unfeasible. However, that said, something needs to be done to increase consumer confidence in the market or this abysmal trend will continue. Consumer confidence will increase when people have money to spend. So, they should, at least, forgive a percentage of everyone’s student loans. This would reward those who have been paying on their loans yet help those who haven’t been able to pay. Reducing student loans by, let’s say, 50%, would lower principal amounts & therefore interest. This would allow people who have been paying on their student loans to pay off their loans faster & enable them to start investing in the economy. These investments by the people who had the fortune to keep their employment along with sound financial decisions to continue to pay, would be the initial investors toward an improved economy. Others who were less fortunate in their job searches/employment efforts could benefit from having higher amounts forgiven as well as benefiting from a proposed improved job market with the growth from the initial investors. Total forgiveness of loans seems impractical but some incentive, such as this one, should exist to encourage financial recovery from those who have been paying on their loans while also helping those who have been unable to pay.
Im begging and pleading with President Obama to please pass this. Im in debt to a colege that was a for profit called High Tech Institute has serveral names like Allied college now called Anthem CHUBB Cambridge Everest etc. I owe over $104,000.00 they promise you jobs in the field of study an courses will transfer to any college that is so far from the truth. the criminal justice degree is worthless but they want their money we even had a book that had nothing to do with American Justice it was the U.K., things that should be part of a criminal justice class we could not participate in due to the school didnt allow it.Im refusing to pay due to the scam they are using to get people to go there the reps make a commission per person they bring in which has high pressure sales to it. My wages are being garnished I make $9.20 I take care of my mother who is 71 and totally disabled. I cannot even get asistance for food nor utilities because I make to much and this is my America !!!!!!! I was reading if I can file bankruptcy on the loan it also states it can be forgiven at time of death, all I can say the later has crossed my mind several times. Im tired of wondering how to put food on the table and gas in my car to go to work I have to miss work cause I dont have the money to get there so I borrow money sometimes or wait til payday to go in. At this rate I will lose my job but student loan could careless they tell me there is nothing they can do they cannot remove the garnishment.
PLEASE HELP ME AND EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THIS PERPETUAL CYCLE OF POVERTY IN AMERICA MOST DONT DESERVE TO KEEP LIVING LIKE THIS.
Thank you for reading my rant
Sincerely
Marie Schalk
First off, I love this bill. I hope it passes. My mother is 65 years old. 65! She raised 9 kids BY HER SELF, worked at the same time, and got her education. She owes $35,000. She works at a public school. Educating the stinkin future leaders and politicians to be better than the previous generation. Over 3/4 of her paycheck is consumed by bills and repaying student loans. Is there no heart left in America? Where did we lose the sentiment? Is their no mercy left for an old woman who simply wants to enjoy her children and grandchildren til the end of her days? When did the leader of the world turn to cold, empty nest? Will she be paying 3/4 of her income until the day she dies? What a dream. What a life.
Without a major change in the student loan laws that applies to everyone equally, you’re mother will be paying back on her student loans until the day she dies. They will take a chunk of her Social Security check when she retires to pay it off.
I went to a private graduate school in expensive CA for my MBA and I have far less less student loans than a lot of people here. What were people thinking? Did they borrow to the max and also take out unsubsidized loans? Why weren’t people keeping their loans in good status to be eligibe for the programs out there now like the income based repayment plan. I took many part-time community classes to have my loans deferred several times. It is good that the plan does limit the forgiveness to 42K because there appears to be so many people that used these loans to live off of them instead of using them for just tuition and supplies like it is advisable to do. Surely people could have worked during their studies…I had three jobs in my full-time BA program and a two during my MBA. Yes, I never slept! I do support this bill though because there are people that didn’t take advantage and need help.
How soon can I defer my student loans after joining the military?
Why is interest applied to these loans?
In commercial banking, interest is a hedge against risk. However, the federal government guarantees federal loans; where’s the risk?
Interest is also a way to account for inflation and the opportunity cost borne by lenders for money tomorrow that they could have today. However, if the federal government is lender, interest does not serve that purpose because the government’s own fiscal and monetary policy leads to inflation. The opportunity cost should be considered an investment in the workforce and the economy.
There are only a few ways to expand the production possibilities frontier; increased population, increased productivity and technological innovation. Unfortunately, the only people who are able to do these things are the ones saddled with debt.
BL
Pittsburgh
~$110,000 BA & MS
I teach middle school. My students have no desire to go to college because they say it’s too expensive and there’s no way they can go without taking out ruinous student loans. That should be a hint right there.
I, myself, owe $80,000. I took out the loans and I intend to repay them. However, I must ask why the US government thinks it’s appropriate to charge ANY interest on a loan intended to better a worker so they can (theoretically) pay more taxes? Why should I pay interest on the investment the government made in me? NO interest should be charged AT ALL. (And incidentally, the student loan forgiveness programs for teachers are a joke. If I am lucky enough to work 4 consecutive years at the right school I may have up to $5000 forgiven. Woo. I’m a temp, like a great many teachers, so I’ll be lucky to work four consecutive years AT ALL.)
My boyfriend is permanently disabled and the only job he can take is one that gives him 100% medical benefits, not the 80/20 split most of us get. We can’t afford to pay 20% of his medical bills, so he can’t work. He owes $20,000 in student loans. How’s he supposed to pay them back? What’s the government going to do, take his $780/mo. disability/SSI away? That would be cruel.
The system needs to be changed. This is a step in the right direction.
The government will take some of his SSDI money to pay back his student loans eventually. They are ruthless at getting money.
I support this bill! Please give graduates equal access to the American Dream!
Higher education shouldn’t mean lower quality of living or the inability to afford life after school. This bill is a step in the right direction.
If I didn’t have burdensome student loan payments, I would probably be purchasing a home in the next year or so. I would be able to afford to save more for my future and would probably spend more too, which would help boost the economy. It is my hope that Washington recognizes our cries for help and does something to ease the pain of student loans. If not, hopefully the $90k I went into debt getting my graduate degree will eventually pay off.
Wow…I’m overwhelmed by all of the comments on here. I felt like I was in this alone! I’ve been paying my college loans as best I could since graduating in 1995 – I’ve had to take some deferments because I wasn’t able to find work at times, and at other times, the rate was just to high to afford. I’ve been paying an interest-only payment for awhile – and that payment is a real burden. My principle never goes down. I couldn’t get approval for a car because of this huge payment each month. Forget about trying to buy a house! This bill would help me and my family out alot! Let’s hope for the best!
This bill will not help me, along with the millions of other student loan holders who do not have a payment history of 120 consecutive payments. My loans were taken out in the late 1980s & early 1990s but I have a lot of bad luck in my life & have not been able to pay my loans off. They are NOT in default & never have been, however.
We need student loan relief for ALL BORROWERS past, present, & future! Something needs to be done to help those of us who were once middle class Americans who lost our jobs & now cannot pay our student loans off. We are the 99ers & we need a bill that helps us too!
I like this bill but it falls woefully short of helping all of us who need relief from the crushing amount of debt we are under because of all of the interests that has collected on our loans over the years!
I say that the government should forgive us all for at least all of the interest charges that have piled up over the years & give us realistic, interest free payment plans that allow us to repay THE ORIGINAL AMOUNT WE BORROWED when we students.
We need real student loan reform NOW–for everyone!
Why not just restore the right to discharge student loans in bankruptcy like we allow for literally EVERY OTHER FORM OF DEBT? Octomom can run up over a million dollars in credit card debt and wash it all away in a Chapter 7, but as a hard-working American who opted to seek a professional degree (J.D.), I can never get my student loan debt discharged despite being stuck in a state and an economy that prevents me from obtaining a job earning more than a first-year public school teacher. It. Is. Absurd.
i support this bill. please present obama go ahead and sign and push this to pass congress.
Where does it say the 120 payments have to be consecutive? Another commenter posted that they are consecutive, but I can’t find the language stating that. They do say 120 payments, but I didn’t see “consecutive” specified–has anyone seen that stated in the proposed legislation? Even just the interest rate decrease would help me, but I have been paying student loans off and on for nearly 15 years (had to put them in deferment when I was a volunteer and then again when I lost my job). And then, when I ran out of deferment time, I put them into forbearance for a few months after a seasonal job ended and I had to take a close to minimum wage jobs to pay the bills. So although I still support this Act, I really hope it doesn’t have to be 120 consecutive payments. Can anyone shed light on if that detail?
How much money should people pay for instruction the ignorance of which makes them richer?
I have read all of the following comments. Something drastic has to
be done,for we can not survive without Hope.I pray that I can help.
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