Should the government bailout holders of student loans? I say yes, especially if they went to schools that were the alternative to traditional universities. The kinds of schools that promise you can get your education on nights and weekends because they are dedicated to helping those that are already working to get ahead in their field.
The problem is, we as a society have been taught all of our lives that when you grow up you should go to college and get a good education so that you can get a good job and make lots of money. So, automatically your mind is programmed with that belief. I can remember back as far as the sixth grade, we had career day. Different people from all types of careers came to the school to talk to the students about life after high school and how it would be in our best interest to go to college.”Don’t worry about paying for college,”they said. There are so many ways to pay for college. Pell grants, student loans, heck they even glamorized holding down a part time job wile attending school.
Flash forward, twenty-one years later and some of us can’t afford a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk, and that is working full time. It appauls me that you can go to college easily, the loans are practically thrown at you because the lender is looking far into the future that you will pay it back , even if it is just the interest. However, many college graduates are not getting jobs six months to five years can go by without getting a decent job.
I have known so many who have $40,000 or more in student loans making minimum wage, or find themselves only able to obtain jobs that do not require a degree in the first place. I believe that the schools those “diploma mill” type schools should be the ones to pay back at least 40% of those loans, because they know that there is a slim chance you will make it. They are all in it for the money.
I have actually said to a friend of mine one time, that if you want to make really good money all you have to do is open a school. Schools of “higher learning” seem to be the only ones getting away with financially rapping those who have a dream of having a better life for themselves. This population of people usually tend to be women, single moms, minorities, and former incarcerated persons. The one thing the aforementioned groups of people have in common, is that at some point they all decided that higher education would be the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. Consequently, the bill for obtaining that education is sometimes counterproductive and backfires on you with a vengeance.
You come to find your self at the cross roads, you can’t get a job because you may have the degree but not the experience. There is also the possibility that the employer does not want to pay you what he knows he should pay a college educated person so they settle with some one who has a GED or high-school diploma. Hiring the person with the latter qualifications can benefit the employer. For example, they do not have to pay higher wages and they don’t have to offer benefits, thereby saving the company money.
In conclusion, the government should take some responsibility for allowing people to get disillusioned with the idea that education is key, when in fact those easily persuaded people can not afford the mere thought of obtaining the “American Dream.”