Paul wants to phase out federal student loans.

Paul wants to phase out federal student loans


WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential contender Ron Paul said Sunday he wants to end federal student loans, calling it a failed program that has put students $1 trillion in debt when there are no jobs and when the quality of education has deteriorated.

Paul unveiled a plan last week to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget that would eliminate five Cabinet departments, including education. He's also wants young workers to be able to opt out of Social Security.

The student loan program is not part of those cuts, but Paul said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he'd kill the loan program eventually if he were president. That could put him at odds with some of his young followers, many of whom are college students.

Paul wants to phase out federal student loans

I know there are quite a few Ron Paul threads going around, but I saw this earlier and thought the opinions on it would be interesting.

I'm not necessarily for or against Ron Paul. I think he has many ideas I agree with and many I don't, this being one I'm not sure I agree with.

I currently attend college, and federal financial aid is virtually the only reason I am able to. Just the fact I am enrolled in college has given me the opportunity to gain entry-level employment in a field related to the one I am hoping to earn a degree in. Even though I am not scheduled to begin repaying on my loans until 2014, I hope to start working on them next year to keep the overall interest down.

There are many issues involved in the whole scenario, but I curious as to what other's opinions on this matter were.

reply to post by ThaLoccster


Wow, I'm a college student, later Ron Paul.

reply to post by ThaLoccster


I can't even begin to express how much this angers me!!!!

WHAT is wrong with these people? Why not cut their damn salaries or make the loans more affordable? Or lets make school more affordable?

WHY do I have to pay 80k for a degree to tell me I can be an interior decorator? There is no reason many of the degrees out there cost as much as they do. College in this country has become a complete money scam. It's all about money and not people getting an education.

I have tried to share my story but I get too upset over it.

I agree with Paul on this .. and I see his point.. It's a system that costs the government a lot of money to provide, it has put maaany americans in debt that they will be spending large parts of their life trying to pay off, if they can even get work in the first place.. Federal student loans haven't been out there forever, we managed before they existed..

The education system itself is a joke.. as pointed out above, the cost of education is extreme.. it doesn't need to be!

The big problem is we've lost our ability to live within our means.. we're a society of borrowing and we need to break that habit.. we just need to

reply to post by ThaLoccster


I can see his logic here. Eliminate the opportunity, and a college graduate instantly becomes a lot less common. That makes sense because we have more college grads than we have positions for them. The real issue is that the positions they could be getting have been moved to New Delhi India and given to people that have no degree, only on the job training. I do not think that barring opportunity for people is the best way to go about fixing a bigger problem. It would just force more middle class people into working three jobs to afford to eat binto beans 7 days a week.

I agree with this as well.

Kill the free money and tuition costs will drop.

Sadly, you cannot regulate the cost of tuition without a bunch of industry insiders getting the media to scream SOCIALISM SOCIALISM!

I still think the federal government should support education as much as possible, but the current system is set up to take my and your tax dollars and give them to institutions of education, among a bazillion others.

That's fine with me. I've got student debt. And the loans DO NOT MAKE IT SO I DON'T PAY FOR IT.

In fact a lot of the student loans are evil, and need reform. Student loans have special rules, and nsome of those rules are not kosher.

So as a future student and as a former student, I've got not one single problem with it.

reply to post by TinkerHaus


Not exactly. High tuition costs exist for either, personal profit, or to fund expensive research. Most professors at top campuses, are only there because the university is funding their work outside the classroom. It won't go down.

I bet that would drive down the cost of college tuitions.

Originally posted by TinkerHaus
I still think the federal government should support education as much as possible, but the current system is set up to take my and your tax dollars and give them to institutions of education, among a bazillion others.

Right - if we're going to support education then I think the way to do it isn't via student loans.. put that money directly into the system by improving curriculum and overall quality of the system.

Perhaps he would like to make higher education 'free' at some point in his presidency.
Or perhaps switch over to another type of loan system, he wouldn't just 'drop federal student loans' all together, without some sort of alternative that works for the student body as well. Knee jerk reactions.

This is not new. He's said this for years. I too am a college student depending on student loans. I still support Dr. Paul. If one of the costs of fixing this horribly broken country means I have to come up with a plan B, so be it. That will be my sacrifice.

Besides once the ATM (student's debt capability)is shut off colleges will have to adjust accordingly and provide competitive tuition rates or die. No new jerseys every year for the football team. I mean, Louisiana Tech has a FLEET of cherry picker hoists specifically so the coaches can get a birds eye view of the practice.

I started school in 1999. Didn't finish, but I went back. In that period of time, tuition went from $1400/semester to $3000/quarter. Is my new school 428 percent better than my old one? Not hardly. Both were state universities and both had the same number of credit hours required for a Bachelors.

We are ATMs to the higher education community, nothing more.


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reply to post by AzureSky


I'm not sure about that. The more I hear about Ron Paul, the more he strikes me as old money that wants to keep others down.

Originally posted by Evolutionsend
reply to post by ThaLoccster

 

I can see his logic here. Eliminate the opportunity, and a college graduate instantly becomes a lot less common. That makes sense because we have more college grads than we have positions for them. The real issue is that the positions they could be getting have been moved to New Delhi India and given to people that have no degree, only on the job training. I do not think that barring opportunity for people is the best way to go about fixing a bigger problem. It would just force more middle class people into working three jobs to afford to eat binto beans 7 days a week.

edit on 23-10-2011 by Evolutionsend because: (no reason given)

Sorry, but you're wrong. I spent 6 months training a call center for my old job in Bangalore and basic phone agents almost always have a degree. Many of the front-line employees there had more education than I did. The company we were outsourcing to, for example, required a basic degree to work customer service in a call center. I know it's the American thing to do to complain about the Indians, and how they speak poor English and are taking all our jobs, but they are a very educated lot. At least the ones filling in all the jobs being outsourced there. That is a primary reason that corporations are exporting jobs of this type to India.

Meanwhile, in our corporate headquarters in the USA, the call center was full of highschool dropouts, "just enough-ers" and hipsters.

I currently work for a logistics company, we are hiring more and more engineers out of India. Why? My company pays them the same wage as they would any American, so it's not cost cutting.. It's because there is a huge pool of young, highly educated engineers to pull from.

While we here in the US are pursuing meaningless degrees in art, media, business, etc.. (generally speaking of course, but go ask 10 people with a college education what they are studying, you'll be surprised at how many are spending tens of thousands on tuition to learn how to make a bathroom pretty.)

The people in India understand that someone still needs to be around to run the world. They are producing software, mechanical, electrical engineers in waves. THIS is why there are so many new jobs there.

Guess what happens when you tell a company, such as a university, that they can get a guaranteed paycheck from the government? Answer: They charge as much as freaking possible! These universities no longer have to worry much about being price competitive with each other since they all get a vast amount of dollars from the same source......our government.
If you cut away all government financial aid, college prices would drop like a freaking rock because no one would be able to afford the current government rate scam prices. Every college would once again be forced to compete for your hard earned dollars and would have to provide the best education at the lowest price possible JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER TRULY PRIVATE INDUSTRY IN EXISTENCE.

Originally posted by samlf3rd
reply to post by ThaLoccster

 

Wow, I'm a college student, later Ron Paul.

So how many " professional students" do you know?

It amazed me when I learned that people actually live on these loans for decades.
Enough Van Wilders milking the system.
If you act like this doesnt happen on every campus you are lying.
These people suck the life out of the very system that you rely on the get an education.
The bleeding has to stop.
There will still be plenty of loans and grants available from both state programs and the priovate sector like there are now.

A 6 figure loan balance applied to an 18 year old kid with zero credit is just shoddy finace any way you look at it and cannot sustain itself forever.


If you want an all expense paid free ride for life.. RP is not your man.
Want a loan? Apply for one. If you don't qualify you shouldnt expect the feds to force anyone to bive you debt.


Later sheeple.

reply to post by TinkerHaus


Who pays their check? That's right, a citizen of our country, because they're cheaper.

Originally posted by BadNinja68
It amazed me when I learned that people actually live on these loans for decades.
Enough Van Wilders milking the system.

If I look back at my college career, that is exatly what I did. I only went back in, some semesters so I'd not have to pay back my student loans. I also took out more in loans than what I needed. I was foolish, and now I get to pay that crap back. on your point. When I go back to actually get something more useful than a music degree (which I did not finish), I'm paying for it. No more loans!

reply to post by Fitch303


That may be true, but college tuition won't go down until they can no longer fill classrooms. Who's to stop the private sector from taking over student loans and charging higher interest than the government? This whole idea is a massive mistake. This kind of thing is what worries me. I think if this does happen, the private sector (BANKERS!) will be picking up the business from student loans, and profiting from it greatly. Unless there's something that prohibits higher interest student loans in the private sector, his great idea could be the final bit of our soul's that we sell to the bankers. BAD IDEA RP.

So then a college education would be free? If not this is a terrible idea. This means only the rich/wealthy elite could go to college. Even the cheapest college is about $10,000 per year! Most college students work minuim wage jobs at best.
This would be a travesty if only the rich could get degrees,. What would that mean? More colleges catering towards the rich. The rich getting richer? If the federal loan program ended I bet colleges would charge even more since they are no longer bound by the federal laws of finical aid. Colleges base what students can get in finical aid. This means a college student would not have excess money for living or educational expenses. An IRS section 42 law already blocks college students from low income apartments but if a student who is paying half his or her salary to college then he or she can not afford a market rate apartment. I can see a lot more homeless college students coming from this scenerio.
I feel Ron Paul is not going to fix our country for the citzens. In fact he wants to do away with social security and medicare. What programs does he propose to put in place of everything he wants to cut? He seems like an extremists to me. extremeists are always dangerous.