After the California Postsecondary School Association challenged the implementation of an Obama-era policy that had loose restrictions on student loan forgiveness from for-profit colleges, a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C. found that the colleges would not suffer "irreparable harm" if the policies were to be implemented. This is a defeat for both Betsy DeVos, education secretary who is also opposed to these rules as well as the California Postsecondary School Association. The education board had delayed these Obama-era regulations since July, 2017 while they were working on their own new regulations that were far more strict and less forgiving. Student loan forgiveness allows individuals to pay pennies on the dollar for the amount of money that originally borrowed if they meet the requirements. Many Democrats and consumer advocates are supportive of these Obama era policies because for-profit colleges tend to overcharge for the education that they are providing and some tend to inflate graduate earnings, promise certain jobs, and overall make the college seem better than it actually is. The people who these schools are recruiting tend to be young, naive, and vulnerable to the appealing promises that these colleges make. Conservatives worry that forgiving too many of these loans could put stress on the federal student loan system, and that it will cost taxpayers far too much money. This is reasonable since the amount of forgiveness provided for cases like these has skyrocketed since 2015.
Questions:
Do you believe that more or less of these types of loans should be forgiven?
Should taxpayers have to pay for someone else's mistakes?
Should colleges be able to profit?
How do you suggest preventing students from becoming victims to fraudulent for-profit colleges and their advertising techniques in the future?
Sources:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/students-defrauded-by-for-profit-colleges-can-seek-loan-forgiveness-judge-rules-1539726303?mod=hp_listc_pos3
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-obama-for-profit-college-fraud-protection-20181016-story.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-judge-denies-delay-obama-era-law-helping-students-defrauded-n920781
I believe that these student loans should be forgiven for now, but in the future, implement a policy where colleges are held accountable for ensuring that their students are able to pay off their loan. The government could maybe create a policy where if a college has a large amount of students unable to pay their loan, the college receives less funding. That way colleges, will try to do their best to either lower the tuition fee or to ensure that every student is able to get a decent job out of college.
ReplyDeleteI don't see this as taxpayers paying for someone else's mistake. Rather, I just see this as another form of social security such as car insurance or health insurance. When people pay premiums for car insurance, they are essentially paying to repair someone else's car. This is a similar situation and is necessary to ensure a functioning economy. If people are only focused on paying off their college debts, they are probably less likely to buy goods and services from businesses, which hurts the economy. While people may have to pay more taxes, the return on paying those taxes through increased business are well worth the cost.
Colleges should be able to profit. The education industry is the same as any other industry. People pay money in exchange for a service. In this case, people gain more job opportunities by pursuing a college degree. Forcing all colleges and universities to be non-profit would go against the idea of free market and would result in a less competitive education system.
To forgive loans that express unnessarily high tuition or other fees does not appear to be a waste of taxpayer money or paying for someone else's mistake. Instead it is an aid to students who have been in some cases fraudulently charged or are left with astromical debt that they did not anticipate due to false claims made by their for-profit college. This implemented policy does alleviate some pressure and wrongdoing done to students however, in the long term there needs to be more government oversight regarding university and college tuition and fees. A ceiling price or restrictions on inflated prices needs to be in place and colleges must undergo evaluations to ensure they are providing students with what they advertise they will and maintain reasonable charges for their students.
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