Obama announces help for student loan borrowers

[hammersxstrings]

President Barack Obama recalled his struggles with student loan debt as he unveiled a plan Wednesday that could give millions of young people some relief on their payments. Speaking at the University of Colorado Denver, Obama said that he and his wife, Michelle, together owed more than $120,000 in law school debt that took nearly a decade to pay

Comments

[layweed]

This is great and all, but it doesn't tackle the root of the issue, skyrocketing tuition rates. =\

[ravenalegria13]

My thing is since I'm graduating, I'm happy he's helping with the debt issue more, but I do agree that tuition rates are incredibly bad right now.

[youngavenger]

Here in MD our governor we just elected said he would stop increasing tuition rates for public 4 year institutions, and he did. I didn't see any raise in tuition but now they are raising fees :| cause tuition and fees are separate. It's ridiculous.

[ravenalegria13]

Yeah, living in my state is just one of those things. Tuition always goes up here.

Icon is not meant to offend if you aren't from there.

[if_by_sea]

cool so i get to put 5% less of my nonexistant money from my nonexistant job into my steadily increasing student loans.

[vanillakokakola]

ARGH.

i wonder if that'll apply to my enormous postbac and med school loans though, since i start my postbac next year.

[celtic_thistle]

This is kinda nice, but not enough. I start paying off mine next month :/ Any little bit helps, I suppose, though I'd love to see all student loan debt forgiven like people have been calling for. Some people's has been crushing them for YEARS and there's no relief in sight. And yeah, how about NOT LETTING schools charge ridiculous tuitions?!

Also, as an aside, he's at Auraria Campus today in the snow. It was 80 degrees on Monday. lol, Denver.

[roseofjuly]

I don't think that's ever going to happen, and I don't necessarily agree with it happening. I think that student loan debt should be forgiven in certain cases, like extended poverty or medical issues or something similar. But people who can reasonably afford to repay their student loans should do so - instantly forgiving student loan debt would also have an adverse effect on the economy, because that's money that the government has loaned that they now can't expect to get back.

[fenris_lorsrai]

That shift at the end from forgiving after 20 years instead of 25 may actually be a big deal for a lot of families as ones that got out of school, married and had kids shortly thereafter may have still been paying on the parents debts. That five year jump back means that it may clear out the parents debt just in time for the kids to go to college so they can actually take out a loan of some sort.

Yeah, they're still rolling into a bigger debt due to the tuition rise, but may suddenly make college feasible for a goodly number of families that couldn't qualify for any type of student loan due to the existing debts.

It may also rev up the housing market some by clearing debts off the books so people in 40-50s that were still carrying some student debt that was dragging down credit scores may now actually be able to GET a loan for a house.

[roseofjuly]

I don't think that it will apply to families that borrowed that long ago - if they have a child on the brink of going to college, then they will have borrowed their student loans back in the 1990s, and I think the change only applies to new loans borrowed in 2012 or later.

[romp]

But that's assuming they went to college around age 20, right? Lots of people go again in their 30s.

[roseofjuly]

Yeah, that's assuming that they were "traditional" college-aged. But even if they did go back in their 30s, it likely would not apply them anyway since I think the law applies to new loans, not old ones.

Starting in 2014 and later, the cap is lowered to 10 percent and debt forgiven after 20 years. But under Obamaâ™s plan, borrowers who took out student loans in 2008 and later â” and who take out a new loan in 2012 â” can get the lower cap and the loan forgiveness starting next year, Gast said.

Let me put it another way so you are clear on who will benefit from this change. The presidentâ™s plan does not affect borrowers who took on loans before 2008 and who do not take out a new loan next year. So, if you are already in repayment and are not planning to take out new student loans, this plan does not affect you.http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obamas-student-loan-plan-isnt-so-

[fimh]

high schools and parents need to stop pushing the 'ideal college experience' at teenagers and stop encouraging 18 year olds to sign up for a life of debt.

[papilio_luna]

Not even 18-year-olds. You make those decisions and start filing the paperwork when you're 16-17 (when I went off to college, I was still 17, so I did all this stuff when I was 16). My advice to young people today is to do everything you can to restrict yourself to federal loans only. Telling kids to not take any loans is just not realistic, but private banks are absolutely predatory while the federal system is actually pretty good. Especially now that the Dept. of Ed is handling everything through the Direct Loan program. Private loans won't be reformed without major acts of Congress, since our government isn't generally in the habit of telling private businesses what to do (quite the other way around). But the President can impact how federal loans are administered just by signing a piece of paper.

MOST IMPORTANTLY MY GRAD SCHOOL LOAN WILL BE PAID OFF IN THREE YEARS OMG CAN NOT COME FAST ENOUGH

[xo_bumblebee]

I'm about to join the Army Reserve to pay for the rest of my grad school. Since it's a 60 hour program, it's pretty lengthy and expensive even though I'm going to a public brick-and-mortar university and have in-state rates and all that.

I get federal loan forgiveness on all of my undergrad loans at the end of this school year (June 2012).

If not for both of those things, I wouldn't be able to afford to live without roommates and all that jazz because I'd have to factor loan payments into my budget.

I'm a teacher, and I tell the kids that every "A" they get is equivalent to scholarship money someday...but like me, they won't understand how hard it is to afford to live on X amount of dollars until it's too late, probably.

[roseofjuly]

THIS. I came from a working-class family so I never had these problems (my choices were scholarships, public university, community college, or go to work) but it's a little different now and many middle-class families are feeling the crunch. Harvard and Yale and so on send you these glossies and tell you that financial aid can be found for your family! We meet 100% of need! When you're 16-17, you don't know that that really means that Harvard gets to decide how much you "need" and your family will have to take out massive loans