I spent five figures paying mine off two years ago.
Still 100% support my tax dollars paying for people’s college. In fact, I’d love that instead of the nine wars my tax dollars are paying for instead.
I’d settle for interest free loans tbh…
And then do it for personal homes, too.
I’d settle for universal housing. And universal education. And universal healthcare.
I don’t understand why you need all of that. Let’s say we agree, next you’ll say people deserve clean water and steer the world away from climate disaster and genocide. You <insert group name> want it all!
The Australian model is also interesting. After your degree you pay a certain percentage of your income to your university for a decade or so. But only if you earn more than the average person.
This means a university gets more money when their students gets good job.
Other points about the Australian system:
- The cost of the university course is subsidised by the government. The government pays the majority of the cost, usually around 70-80%. For example, a Bachelor of Computer Science degree at the university I went to (Swinburne) is currently AU$9k/year (~US$5.8k) subsidised vs AU$39k/year (~US$25.4k) full price.
- The loans for the amount you have to pay are through the government and are interest free. They’re indexed for inflation once per year, but this is a much lower increase compared to interest from a bank loan.
- You only have to pay it off once you earn over $51k/year, like you said. Repayments start at 1% of income and are paid as part of your income tax return.
- They used to have a program where if you paid $500 or more of the loan upfront, you’d get a 10% discount (so e.g. if you paid $500, it’d reduce your loan balance by $550).
Note that this system only applies to citizens and permanent residents. International students still have to pay the full price. Having said that, Australian universities frequently advertise at college fairs in the USA, as even at the full price plus flights plus accomodation, studying in Australia can still end up cheaper than the USA, and Americans love Australia 🙂
This is all I care about. I was forced to refinance into private loans because the interest rates on the federal loans were fucking stupid. All I want is the loans to be more reasonable.
I saw my wife’s student loans last night. She took out 37,000 dollars in 2008. She’s been paying her monthly amount for over 10 years, and she now only owes 43,000 dollars.
Cancel student debt. Most of us have already paid for college more than once.
Edit: also worth noting that up until now, only about 30% of PSLF applications are approved, and something like 37 (that’s total, not percent) of loans are fulfilled using IDR plans.
Cancel student debt.
The problem is colleges just will keep charging more because they know people will just keep getting them knowing the gov will cover it eventually. The fix isn’t to have the gov. Cover some loans, it should be to stop letting colleges be run like a private sector.
Jokes on you, they already keep charging more.
I bet if the government is footing the bill they will demand lower tuition. And unlike lowly poor people, the government is someone they will have to listen to.
You aren’t wrong with your point. But both should be true.
colleges are charging more, and as a result, fewer students are attending.
College will once again be only for the wealthy.
But plenty of people have discovered college is not necessary to thrive in life anyway.
College will once again be only for the wealthy.
you make it sound like that isn’t the point. welcome to the new cast system
Same, but I want to be reimbursed. I don’t know how people who want their debt forgiven now don’t support me being reimbursed for mine. They seriously set my life back.
Believe me, I get it. I would definitely love to have that $16,000 back.
I’d like for it to be that way too, but I think it’s unlikely. On a macro level though, it’s just more important to eliminate debt for the indebted, I think.
Only SIXTEEN THOUSAND?? When you said five figures, you had us thinking $99,999.
I’m on year three of six, paying back $63,000 by way of the IRS garnishing 100% of my disability benefits and tax refunds 🥺