Kaili Boyd

I was just checking out a website called the project for student debt. I just discovered that part of the $700 Billion bailout suggested by Henry Paulson and approved by Congress is giving money to prop up private student loan providers. This is ridiculous. Banks charge almost twice the amount of government backed loans when they float students money to pay for school with private funds. For example, my Guaranteed Student Loans, backed by the federal government are currently at an interest rate of about 4 percent. And if I happen to be out of work or taking classes I can defer those loans, which I’m currently doing.

However my one Private Loan through Wells Fargo which was for $25,000.00, started at 10 percent and is currently at 13.5. Forgive me for not reading the fine print because unlike the government, who allows me to defer the loan while I’m in school. I’ve been giving Wells Fargo between $250-$300 per month since the month after I started school. That was 8 years ago and I’ve only knocked off $4,000.00 from the principal. This is preposterous. All I was trying to do is get the best education I possibly could. And I can’t even consolidate the damn thing because it’s a private loan and the rest of my student loans are publicly funded.

I can’t really complain because I know people who attend my alma mater (Syracuse University) and charged the entire cost of their tuition (about $120,000 if you graduate in 4 years) on credit cards. Talk about killing your credit.

But instead of bailing out automakers, who were too arrogant to see the handwriting on the wall 20 years ago, and banks who were involved in business practices that seem crazy to people who don’t study finance (let alone those that do), why no take some of that money which is mounting to almost a trillion dollars at this point and give it to those of us who are drowning in student loan debt?

How about investing in those of us struggling to achieve the American Dream that seems almost unattainable in our lifetime, unlike that of our parents?

When my father graduated from Syracuse University in 1959, the total cost of tuition room & board was $3,000.00. When one of my former empoyer’s graduated from the same school in 1980 it was $10,000. When my sister began attending in 1989 it was $18,000 a year and has taken a $3,000 a year jump every year since. By the time I graudated in 2002 it was $33,000.

So realistically, when am I ever getting out from under this debt? At this rate I’m be collecting a social security check and still paying off student loans.

The Project for Student debt has proposed an idea which I am fully behind: forgiving student loans after 20 years or at your 40th birthday. I’m behind this for the obvious reason – I’ll be 40 in 3.5 years. But honestly, some of the student loans that I can’t afford to pay will be 20 years old at that point anyway.

So if you’re behind this idea, check out their website: www.projectonstudentdebt.org

They’ve got a lot of interesting things to say.