“The more educated anyone is, the higher their income, and the higher their income, the more freedom they have to start a savings program, and to be on the road to asset building.”

That is an outright lie and has cost more low income families to be so debt ridden that its not even funny, particularly low income mothers who were duped into that line of thinking and find themselves with astronomical amounts of interest paying student loans. Some paying out of their SSI and/or disability and living on the streets.

So much for the education equals a bed of roses, NOT. I don’t make any more income now with four years of college than I did before college, only difference is now I have a 100,000 student loan debt that I can’t afford to pay and it will just go up and up and up. I’m too old to donate/sell my eggs, too old to prostitute [though snuff films might be an option], and too old to strip.

My rage isn’t so much at the student loan industry, as it is towards the higher education predators who tell low income mothers that education is a way out of poverty. BULL. If ANYTHING,

its a guarantee of not only a life of poverty [with no way out except maybe an abusive marriage which is what finally was what I wound up in, but it was that or living on the streets with three kids] and a guarantee of a lifetime of low wage servitude to Uncle Sam, to pay three times the loan amount in interest [hell forget principle] on a ten dollar an hour job.

IF I had to do it all over again, I would have ran, ran so far away from the college doorstep, besides, I learned far more, in life and in reading [libraries are free folks] than I ever did in the years of school. Or, what I learned in school, basically was just a confirmation of the Existence I was already living [my major was poli sci], studying about government and stratifications of the system when I was already LIVING it, was a bit absurd to say the least, and to think I will now pay out the ass for what I already knew,

its almost laughable. But here’s the real clincher...and why colleges need to STOP SELLING THE LIE, especially to lower income/non-traditional students,

corporations and companies do NOT want to hire 40 somethings just out of college. Especially women. Thats just a fact, and no amount of education will change that,

statistically, if you do the research, its just amazing at how many defaults are not young college grads but older non-traditional grads [or drop outs due to costs of school/and supporting a family] who find that they can’t get jobs in the field of their study [lets not forget to include corporate downsizing and job outsourcing and in sourcing of jobs to illegals, I see it every day, it is happening, cheap labor and its increasing daily],

and then they find they can’t afford the 800 a month payment with rents too over a thousand [you can’t get studio apartments with three children, its illegal people], utilities, forget car payments, just bus transport alone for low income workers is about 50 a month, if you have kids its even more, childcare including after school care, runs in the hundreds, a Week, mind you,

and medical. Thats not including food, clothes and expenses for the kids...and if you Don’t provide those its called NEGLECT—the system treats it like its some kind of ‘extra expenditure’, its a Responsibility, not a luxury...

and its these people who wind up in defaults and its not the loan amount so much as the compounded interest that just grows and grows,

and my question is, Who benefits from this?

Certainly not the students, the cost of tuition have inflated, yearly, and not the taxpayer.

Then who? The collectors [Sallie Mae, ex] who the DOE is in bed with...[how is that golf field btw?]

And then on top of that, the criminalizing of the people who find themselves in the student loan mess, is just beyond unbelievable. You’d think they were all a bunch of twenty somethings driving Volvos and drinking martini’s at parties...by the way the stereotype describes them,

and that they just don’t care about repaying. But thats not the truth, the truth is, so many have been told that education is the key to higher earnings, but it simply is NOT the case and has gotten so many [in the thousands mind you] into debt that the next generation may well be saddled with, if something isn’t done.

Education is not any guarantee of squat. I know people who have nothing but a tenth grade education that are doing better than me. Its just laughable when workers at Walmart can at least have a dream, where I, like so many others, have only years and years of unbridled debt on our backs, with constant harassment from collectors and no way out. Cutting expense to pay higher payments, cutting What? Food? Do that—-now we have medical costs contributed to poor nutrition and dental needs for the kids we won’t be able to afford, [though too bad we aren’t illegals, medicaid would foot the bill, arrrgh],

so our kids suffer. Cutting car expense, LOL, don’t own one, can’t afford one or insurance even if we wanted...clothes, trashcan finds, dumpster diving is fast becoming an art in this nation, and its amazing, at how many of the dumpster divers,

have college degrees.

The ONLY thing education guaranteed us [my husband is in same boat], is not only are we butt ass poor, and in debt forever,

we have the knowledge now as to Why we are poor, how the system works, how its stratified, and part of it, is the LIE that a college education means higher earnings. Who benefits from this lie?

DOE and the Collectors in bed with them, Thats who.

Its time to end the lie and stop it dead in its tracks before more people are hurt and more children suffer...in a lifetime of debt bondage.

There are exceptions to this, sure, I won’t deny that, but on average, it simply isn’t true, not anymore. But I suppose, its better to promote the lie isn’t it, after all, if we told the truth to the upcoming generation of have nots, they might actually Do something other than believe in an illusion and that would be scary wouldn’t it?

And you can bet, there are regimes and systems of ideology out there, that are not only watching, but are waiting, for the upsurge of people who are fed up with being sold the LIE,

and hilariously, you KNOW it. The Real lifeline to low income students is not more loans, hell no,

its the truth...that in our economy [and global state of affairs] their possibility of upward mobility is nill to none. Better to face reality, avoid a lifetime of debt bondage to the DOE,

and work for low wages [they’ll be low wage anyway so what difference does it make?] Maybe then, there will be demand for Change,

until then, keep promoting the lie, keep insulating the debt bondage to DOE/loan sharks and an increase in insurmountable debts and foreclosures in this nation, and keep withering away the middle class!

All the education in the world, won’t prevent what is to come...

Tasha, at 4:45 am EDT on May 5, 2008

D’oh!

The Problem: low-income students who are “college-ready” and have already straddled academic hurdles which may include inferior teachers, buildings, academic curricula, and other barriers from home, family, and social environment are attending college at a vastly reduced level from higher SES students.

Kick the Problem When Its Down: Ask those low-income students to fill out 108 questions, half of them being tax form related and needing significant time from a parent who may have had their taxes prepared by H & R Block and is in no hurry to try to figure the thing out themselves.

Wonder Why These Students Aren’t Attending and Completing College: Financial strain kills many of their dreams. If only there were more money out there. Oops! There is lots of money out there, but you didn’t complete the form, you weren’t aggressive enough — it’s your fault for not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps like real Americans do.

Possible Solution: I really hate to say this, but maybe Ronny Reagan was onto something when he wanted to dissolve the Department of Education. Only a bureaucracy like that could create such a twisted process of financial aid. Hopefully, they can now clean up their own crap-pile.

Phil, at 8:52 am EST on February 20, 2007

Right on

You are right on. We create this sub-culture and then lament when poor students either fail or drop out or simply don’t go to college at all. We have long “identified” the problems, the trouble is we talk and talk and meet and meet and discuss.. well you get the idea... and then do absolutely NOTHING about the problem. I know that I oversimplify the solution, but what happened to just identifying the problem, identifying the solutions and then implementing those which work to the betterment of our students? We swim in this sea of red tape and that is the very sea that is causing our students to drown. Do we not realize that our youth will for the first time in the history of the US, NOT be better off than their parents; that their life expectancy is now lower than that of previous generations? We better wake up and soon.

Martin, at 10:31 am EST on February 20, 2007

Just curious who the “real americans” are?

curious, at 10:31 am EST on February 20, 2007

For Phil, “D’oh”

It seems that you have no idea what you said when suggesting that perhaps “Ronny Reagan was onto something ....” It is apparent that you have know idea what was really going on during that era.

I came from a working-class family, graduated high school in 1981, and had no way of getting any such financial aid, because the Reagan administration deemed that my parents’ $16,000 household income was too much to qualify.

Thanks to the Clinton administration, I was able to get federal loans, and I finally finished my B.A. in 2002. Yes, 21 years after finishing high school.

I suggest that you think, or at least do your homework, before extending such notions over the airways.

Jayne Hoffman, at 10:31 am EST on February 20, 2007

Tax Data Can Simplify the FAFSA for Everyone

Long, Bettinger and H&R Block are making a valuable contribution to field with their targeted experiment.

Over the past year, The Institute for College Access & Success has been exploring a way that ALL students and families could benefit from a similar approach. It is both technologically feasible and perfectly legal for financial aid applicants to simply give the U.S. Department of Education access to the needed income information in their tax records. People already do this whenever they apply for a mortgage and in many other situations. For more about this solution, see http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pub_view.php?idx=185.

Lauren Asher, at 3:05 pm EST on February 20, 2007

FAFSA reluctance

Just two thoughts on this issue: 1. Not all tax preparers use a format that easily identifies the items required on the FAFSA...no item to item coorespondence.2. A good number of low-income and/or first generation students can not take the time to go to college because they are an income generator for their parents and brothers/sisters. They feel the necessity of working full-time after high school and feel their parents and siblings are relying on them to do just that.

Larry Moser, Director, Secondary Career Center at SouthArk Community College, at 3:05 pm EST on February 20, 2007

If FAFSA quits screwing us there would be more

” less clear are the reasons why.” I could waste paragraphs on how fafsa and my school’s financial aid are screwing the poor here, but I won’t since this is not about my school or it’s 33% tuition increase over the last 4 years.As with all good things there are the bad. Fafsa, at least where i attend school, helps fund up to a point leaving the student to pay the rest. When the student can’t afford the difference it’s not really helping is it! If fafsa allowed loans up to the amount it actually cost to attend school it would be great! I have friends who quit or didn’t go after applying because they can’t afford it. I come from a town where parents don’t pay for college, because they can barely make it anyway and I am ok with that. I think expecting parents to be funding college education by fafsa is ridiculous. I work during the school year and all of it goes to pay the difference between tuition and aid. The following year fafsa gives me half of what i make the previous year less on my next aid year. That forces me to work more to pay a greater difference and it is quickly getting out of hand. They even use what I made for work study for the number. It’s labeled on my aid package as an award! Basically they take half of the “award” each year from the following years aid package! Not to mention that I make less at my “award” work study job then I did at my regular summer job.

I also blame a social issue. The more wealthy have a different lifestyle and clash often with the “less wealthy": at my school. People like to be around others like themselves, it’s human nature. The problem is self perpetuating.

James, at 4:10 pm EST on February 20, 2007

I’ve run an independent financial aid firm for over 20 families and have personally guided thousands of families through the aid process.

Only a maximum of 15 answers to the 102 questions on the current version of the FAFSA can be taken directly from the line items on the IRS tax return. Six of those 15 responses do not involve financial figures. In some cases — such as for parents who are separated but file a joint return or who are recently widowed — even the responses to those FAFSA questions involving certain line items on the tax return may need to be adjusted from the data reported on the tax return. 15 out of 102 is far less than the “more than half” figure referenced in the article.

Waiting to file the FAFSA until after the income taxes are done (in early February at the earliest for most tax filers, since employers aren’t required to provide w-2 forms until January 31) may also result in some students missing the very early priority aid filing deadlines (and missing out on aid from some programs) at a number of schools with more limited aid dollars to award.

Advising the family as to how much aid they are eligible to receive can also be misleading to a family. The overwhelming majority of schools have to “gap” students because the demand for aid exceeds the supply. As such, aid eligibility is not met in full with actual funds. It is also impossible to predict in advance how much “campus-based” federal aid (SEOG, Work-study job, and/or Perkins Loan money) a student will receive.

I also believe the researchers have failed to understand that financial aid involves a complicated, multi-step process. It’s not a one-step process such as filing a tax return. There are many more steps involved (some of which may be required before one even completes the FAFSA). All students will usually have to complete additional forms besides the FAFSA (possibilities include institutional aid forms, Verification Statements, the CSS PROFILE, Tax return cover sheets, IDOC forms, noncustodial parent statements, promissory notes, business supplements) in order to get those aid funds.

Finally, the conclusions draw from the project may well be flawed in assuming that the process of apply for aid is not a problem if there is a limited response from families for this project, as Mr. Long states. In order for a family to be “jumping at the chance to have somebody help them with their FAFSA", that family will first need to pay a fee to have their taxes prepared before they can have their FAFSA prepared. I would imagine that fee alone may prevent a large number of families from jumping to participate.

Kalman A. ChanyAuthor, “Paying for College Without Going Broke”

Kalman Chany, President at Campus Consultants Inc., at 5:50 pm EST on February 21, 2007

Pro-active Financial Aid

“If students would only enter the doors of the financial aid offices located in every institution of higher education all over this country, I think you would see more receiving aid.”

Our front office service proactively contacts the students regarding financial aid — informing them of their options, walking them completely through the FAFSA and any other forms, and even talking to their parents to get the tax info needed. Students appreciate the support and service.

By continuing to make contact with the students during critical junctures of the process, we ensure the fastest cycle time and improve conversion of leads to students applying for aid.

It’s a win-win for the school and the students.

Sandra Kemp, Global Financial Aid Services, at 12:56 pm EST on February 22, 2007

penalizing students

I work at a public two-year college and recently encountered a student who had filed for financial aid and couldn’t get her award because she was young enough that the feds want to consider her parents income before determining her eligibility. Mother is deceased. Father is estranged and didn’t file his taxes. Without a 1040 from her father, she cannot get financial aid. The student has no control over her father filing or not filing his taxes. So she is trapped. There is definitely something wrong with this picture.

Margaret, at 4:05 pm EST on February 23, 2007

FAFSA

The FAFSA/Tax System are both a mess. I don’t get why people are taxed, their money is run through a grinder, and then it is lent back to them at a reduced interest rate for educational purposes and somehow that is considered a good system. The bureaucratic machinery gobles a huge chunk of peoples money, goes “URP", then regurgitates a small chunk of what it ate and gives it to the people. There is a legitimate place for charity for those who need it. But, you don’t create have to construct a behemoth to meet the need.

Eric Bierker, at 11:26 am EST on March 7, 2007

The process of FAFSA to me is not the issue. It is there as a starting point. All the funds that are supposedly available for low income students are nearly impossible to find. That my friends, is the problem. I tried to attend college for my dream job, only to drop out 10 months later because aid didn’t cover 1/4 of my tuition for a semester. I am now attempting to go back to school and have filed every grant and scholarship application I’ve come across. My parents and family can’t help with costs, they live paycheck to paycheck. What does America expect of us when we can’t even crawl out from under the crap they feed us? My only chance for going to school is getting more students loans. Tell me how I can pay for these over 10 or 20 years when the best education I’ll be able to get will be funded by “private” loans?

Scott, at 2:55 pm EDT on March 12, 2007