Dirty Laundry and Student Loans

I am about to air some family laundry in today’s column. My family hates it when I do that so please don’t tell any of them.

The Biden administration student loan forgiveness program has me a little POed. It’s much worse, I’m fuming at the unfairness of this. Not to mention that it’s ridiculous policy.

First, it’s painted as a one-time fix for workers who are saddled with student loan debt. Yeah, right. Are students in the future going to accept that as fairness. Not on your life.

Nancy Pelosi even admitted, last year, that Biden did not have the authority to forgive student debt. That was then and this is now. She remains silent recently as it has become reality.

More than 40% of student debt is held by doctors, lawyers, and other advanced degrees according to Forbes. These professionals used student loans to earn lucrative degrees. Most are not financially in need and it reeks of unfairness to ask others to foot the bill.

Pundit Josh Barro said it very well, “It’s because the Democratic Party has been captured by the interests of highly educated people generally and the young, highly educated people who staff relative government, media, and activism institutions specifically. Once again, they are making choices about priorities that ignore the fact that a large majority of Democratic voters do not hold a bachelor’s degree.”

Only 15% of adults have student loans. That means that 85% will pay the bills. I’m sure Biden is catering to his young voters who have left him. But that doesn’t seem like a winning formula to bring them back when only 15% of adults have student debt.

Students who went to local community colleges or less expensive universities because of the cost, are now paying the price for those who sought out fancy lucrative degrees at expensive institutions. What about those who took on jobs, waitressing, taking night jobs and scrimping on everything to save money? I don’t think anyone will see that as fair.

Doing the right thing, saving for college, or paying back your student debt, will surely make many feel as if they’ve been duped. Suckers!

Now back to my family and our experience. I was thinking back to when one of my daughters went off to college. We had recently started our company and were struggling financially. The only alternative to cover costs was to take advantage of student loans. We were thankful they were available. She worked as a waitress also to help cover costs. After graduation, she took a job for awhile and paid back undergraduate loans. Law school was her next move. She was accepted at a prestigious law school, Georgetown. It was not cheap. Student loans were available again.

We were able to pay her monthly rent, utilities and food. Student loans took care of tuition. There was no extra money for much. She took a job as security in the law library. It was perfect as it was rarely used. Most nights only a few researchers came in. She had lots of time to study. When her first paycheck was due, she was completely broke. It was 100 degrees in DC and she walked to the school to pick up her check. (This was before direct deposit, I guess.) When she arrived she was told she didn’t receive a check that week, hers would not be available until the following week.

I’ll never forget when she told me this story. “Mom, I lost it right there in the middle of the place. I said, ‘I have no money. I walked here because I didn’t have bus fare. I’m not leaving without my money. I don’t care if it comes out of the Dean’s pocket’.” They called her boss, known as “Sarge”. He was not liked by many. He took her into his office and calmed her down. Asked her how much they owed her. He wrote her a personal check from his account and gave her what cash he had in his pocket until she could get the check cashed. He said she could pay him back the following week.

She became his lifelong friend. After that she said she could never say no when he needed her and nobody was allowed to speak negatively of him in her presence. She loved him. He gave her as many hours as she could work and then some. But she could never say no to him again.

Thankfully, our company became successful, and we were able to help her pay those monstrous loans back within a few years. We were better positioned to pay tuition when our second daughter went to college.Our story is probably not unique. There are many others who went through similar hardships. Many families started saving when their children were born and made sacrifices to have funds available. Nothing has ever been more unfair than this latest Biden give away.

It’s no coincidence that tuition has skyrocketed causing students to borrow more and more. This will only make the problem worse.