The NYT would like you to be upset for student loan holders, not upset AT student loan grantors.

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

It has been six years since Ms. Fitzgerald — broke, unemployed and in default on the $18,000 in loans she took out for Jenni’s college education — became a boomerang mom, moving into her daughter’s townhouse apartment in Hingham, Mass.

[snip]

“It’s not easy,” Ms. Fitzgerald said. “Jenni feels the guilt and I feel the burden.”

Actually…

“I don’t really feel guilt, but I do know that this is all because of a loan taken out on my behalf,” said Jenni, who has a different last name and agreed to be interviewed only if it would not be disclosed.

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth…

Moe Lane

PS: OK, yes, that was somewhat unkind of me.  At least Jenni is letting her mom live with her.  But if you read the NYT, it quickly becomes clear that you’re supposed to feel bad for the parents and kids who are stuck in this situation… but NOT the schools that pretty much connived at putting them there.  You want less heartbreak coming from student loans?  Fine.  Make them dischargeable by bankruptcy and put the schools at least partially on the hook for for default.  I guarantee you that THAT bit of negative feedback will do wonders for getting spiraling educational costs down, and in an amazingly short period of time, too.

7 thoughts on “The NYT would like you to be upset for student loan holders, not upset AT student loan grantors.”

  1. http://chronicle.com/article/Median-Earnings-by-Major-and/127604/
    .
    Free hint to parents of college .. no, high school .. no, *all* parents.
    .
    While it’s true that what’s a hot career today (petroleum engineer) may not be a hot career tomorrow (webmaster) .. there are some obvious careers that you should push (guide..firmly) your kids *away* from. (psychology)
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    Especially if you want them to be responsible for their own college loans!
    .
    Mew

    1. My young children have been told that they are not allowed to major in a humanity or social science (this coming from hard earned experience)

  2. I almost didn’t marry my husband because of his high student loans. Some was from fraud (step-dad) rest was BA and Masters in. . .psychology. He has actually found a career niche and will probably out earn me one of these days.

    These debts really are a big deal!

    1. Our host, Moe, is right about one thing – if loans could be discharged or even just renegotiated for pennies on the dollar in a bankruptcy, the system would fix itself.
      .
      Back in the day, any kid who had the grades and chutzpah to show they were a reasonable risk could get a loan to go to college *if* their track looked likely to end in a career that could pay back the money.
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      The government has slowly slid its’ entire hand onto the scale…
      .
      Mew

      1. I’m fine with that. What bothers me is that even now my husband regrets that he took out those loans for those degrees.
        He wishes he had been better educated on the impact these loans would have on his life going forward. How many others are out there like him?

  3. As somebody with 200K+ of loans, I can speak from experience what a pain they are and how the colleges have us trapped. Certain fields are impossible to graduate from without massive loans unles you are from the right demographic.
    .
    Gov. Perry has a plan to make Unoversities offer $10K degrees and the universities protested. They are not willing to cut the fat and eliminate the victimhood fields and do-nothing profs.

    1. And Perry’s plan would only about half-way make up for letting the various Board of Regents set tuition wherever they want without state legislature approval. Assuming, of course, that a $10K degree could be something more useful than a Bachelor’s in General Studies…

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