I really thought I was making headway with my conservative friend in Milwaukee the other day on health care, when he ditched what we were talking about and said "government shouldn't be involved in health care."
I'm guessing he would say the same thing about student loan debt...and almost everything dragging down our economy. They don't like the obvious answers, the easier more obvious solutions that save money and free people up to do other important things.
One Wisconsin Now has been pushing student loan reform for awhile, and now has Mary Burke, the Democratic candidate for governor on board. But even their solution is a band aid compared to what other countries have successfully done, as shown in the cartoon to the below.
New Hope for Solutions to $1.2 Trillion Student Loan Debt Crisis in Wisconsin? Gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke has included some of the common sense solutions from the Higher Ed, Lower Debt Act in her newly released "Invest for Success" jobs plan. Specifically Burke calls for creating a mechanism to allow Wisconsin borrowers to refinance their student loans to take advantage of lower interest rates, just like you can with a home mortgage or other consumer loan. And Burke would allow borrowers to deduct student loan debt payments on their state taxes, just like you can with home mortgage loan interest.
Original research by One Wisconsin Institute found that borrowers with an undergraduate degree in Wisconsin were making average payments of nearly $350 per month for almost 19 years. The impact of this debt is dramatic and negative for the entire state economy. And freeing a generation of well-trained, well-educated Wisconsinites from the chains of crushing debt will spur the entrepreneurism and small business creation needed to break out of our economic doldrums.
The cost of college wouldn't be so high in the first place if the government didn't backstop the loans so that all universities can jack up tuition costs to whatever they like instead of allowing schools to compete for students' enrollment.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were able to pay for their own tuition, room and board by working their way through college. Gee, what has changed since then?
Maybe $100,000 of debt for a bachelors of arts degree in Transgender French studies isn't the smartest decision one could make.
Maybe universal everything actually isn't the answer to everything and liberals should stop using the threat of government force shoved down our throats and pull their heads out of their butts and actually study something for once rather than pretend they know everything without any logical arguments to support their views.
Go check the difference in wages between college grads and non-college grads, then get back to us.
DeleteUnless you agree that skilled trades are underpaid due to outsourcing and union-busting, and that trend should be changed. In which case, I'm with ya
Also, are you calling for a return to the days where taxpayers took up a lot more of the costs associated with the UW System, as it was during your parents' days? If the answer is "No", then SHUT IT .
DeleteYour anti-intellectual anti-worker GOP caused this quandry of student debt. Not us