The GOP package, called the “Lowering Education Costs and Debt Act,” consists of five bills that the senators say will address the root causes of the student debt issue such as the increasing price of college and students taking out loans they can’t afford.
So their plan is to ensure students know the costs upfront (This is already done) and then to limit certain students from borrowing. What a wonderful idea to bring home to your constituents while not addressing the issue of rising costs.
“Unlike President Biden’s student loan schemes, this plan addresses the root causes of the student debt crisis. It puts downward pressure on tuition and empowers students to make the educational decisions that put them on track to academically and financially succeed,” he added.
Lowering people’s ability to borrow doesn’t really address the other problems which underlie high tuition costs - such as newer facilities costs, more administrative staff (both of which, IMO, heavily relate to the competition between schools to provide the most services to their students and court new student admissions), and decreases in federal and state funding coming from tax revenue which has led to much of the financial burden being passed onto individual students.
Plus, as @misguidedfunk mentioned, we already tell students their upfront cost of attendance - multiple times even before they decide to enroll or start classes - and they have to acknowledge it as part of receiving aid.
heavily relate to the competition between schools to provide the most services to their students and court new student admissions
Malcolm Gladwell podcast discussing this very thing: https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/food-fight
This does nothing to address one of the most expensive aspects of attending college - room and board. With rent and real estate prices climbing dramatically, this is a huge (>50%) part of the expense of college for those who cannot live at home. Students get loans to help cover that and over four years it adds up to many tens of thousands of dollars.
great point. don’t forget the books tho! that industry needs some reigns put on it and to prevent professors from preventing the use of used books!
This is very true in my experience. My college expenses were slashed in half when I moved out of the dorm and into a tiny studio apartment across the city from my campus. It also really hurt my ability to study when I was so far from campus. It hurt my studies even moreso when I needed to take on a part time job to try mitigating the costs of my rent. It’s a really toxic system, because the parts of cities with universties tend to be the expensive parts of cities.
Sounds good on the face of it but really doesn’t address the mountain of debt most people are in currently. Agreed that schools and deceptive lending practices need to be reigned in, but let’s be real here, this doesn’t really address the root cause of the problem which is runaway costs. As long as people are willing to take the loans out the schools will continue to charge what they want. From what I read it’s just kicking the can down the road and putting the onus on a young student coming out of high school to make the right decision.
These don’t sound terrible, but aren’t the root causes of the student debt problem still being unaddressed?
- student loans are legally allowed to be usurious (payment plans where your payment isn’t enough to cover interest, and the balance grows)
- you can’t legally default on student loans; they follow you out of bankruptcy
Because that’s a potent cocktail for disaster.
