First off, I never asked for or expected the federal government to pay off in full or part my college loans. Secondly, I’m not going to ask for it either. If, however, the government comes offering to reduce my student loan debt from a master’s degree, I may take it.
I’m kinda confused about the extreme agitation of Americans who oppose college student loan reduction. It seems their real anger is at any American who went to college for any reason, any degree, any additional knowledge or even skills. Behold, another generation gap. My parents did not provide for my college education. They did what they could to help with books and personal items but did not have the money to pay for a college education. College was something I not only wanted to do with all my heart but had to complete to be a public school teacher.
While in college, the student financial aid office told me about Pell Grants for which I qualified along with the work-study program. I applied and received Pell Grants and work-study on-campus jobs that pretty much covered my college expenses. Afterwards, I had to pay $50 a month for two federal student loans I (and not my parents) took out the first two years of college back in the early 1980s. The Jimmy Carter loan came with a two percent interest rate while the Ronald Reagan loan had a nine percent rate. Making that $50 a month payment was hard most of the time when starting out as a full-time worker, mostly with low-paying jobs that did not require a college degree. I wasn’t instantly hired as a teacher, see. But the loans were paid off and long ago.
By the way, I was so grateful to my country for providing me the golden opportunity to go to college that I did a lot of volunteer work after graduating, mostly at a homeless shelter. I was trying to give back to our society to make the world a better place. I was idealistic way before college. It had a little to do with held-over attitudes from the 1970s.
Through the ups and downs of life, I managed to have had a career in journalism and then, 16 years after college, finally got that first teaching gig which turned into a second career, albeit with two layoffs during the Great Recession. It was then I decided to go back to college. Grad school, it’s called in the world of academia. It had been 30 years since I’d been in college. I searched online options and old school campus scenarios and after much contemplation decided to pursue a master of liberal studies, AKA liberal arts. At age 50, I wanted to take courses in a variety of subjects. But on a teacher’s salary—yet in a career where it is expected you will always return to college and earn higher and more degrees—I had to look into financial aid.
I signed on the dotted line and agreed to attend night school twice a week along with summer sessions, accomplishing the goal in two and a half years. I was so proud. I know I did the right thing, wished I had done it a lot earlier.
After six months or so, I had to start paying the debt with a monthly bill five times what it cost for a bachelor’s degree back in the ’80s. I own a house now and am growing older. In short, life happens and impacts the budget from time to time. Even so, I kept my payments even when unemployed. Then the pandemic came, and for some reason college debt collection and payments were put on hold. Still is.
I’m very happy to pay off what I owe. After the new roof and other necessities, I figure it’ll take maybe four more years. That’s if nothing major happens.
When did college become a dirty word?
I’m not sure why my parents—featuring a mother who was a teacher and spoke of her college daze as the most fun time of her life—did not create a fund for me starting at birth in the early 1960s. But I didn’t have time to cry about it in 1980-81. I talked to the high school counselor who provided all sorts of college applications for student loans and grants. I filled them out by myself, only asking my parents for their income information. They earned too much for me to qualify for grants, so a federal student loan was my option. I also worked a lot of jobs while in college, something that I’m proud of but not really. Those jobs (sandwich maker, singing waitress, university news service reporter, music librarian assistant, writing tutor and freelance newspaper writer) took a lot of time from my studies—the purpose of being in college in the first place. Two of the part-time jobs were work-study. But by my final year in college, the federal government cut that program to bare bones. Somehow, penniless, I no longer qualified for work-study. The writing lab director kept me on anyway, explaining with a wink it’s all just paper.
I guess I was prepared for a bleak future in getting financial aid for college. My senior year in high school, the government teacher talked about our country’s divide in whom should attend college, making it clear one should already have the money before attempting to enroll. I never heard such a thing. It was the first time I feared I may not get to go to college. Some people believe college is only for the rich? For those who can afford it upfront? For those who upon graduating high school must work for years to save for college then attend? I disagreed with the premise and told her so, choking back tears, not realizing that a lot of Americans do not support the idea that anyone who wants to go to college should be ‘afforded’ the opportunity.
While in college a couple of friends had to quit. They had been attending on Social Security (one’s parents were dead) and the GI Bill. The Reagan administration cut the GI Bill and the Social Security provision which provided college tuition for kids whose parent or parents were deceased. The government’s line was budget cuts were necessary to balance the budget. College was only for those who can afford it and not for anyone else even if already in college. The friends made plans to live with relatives and work a job and save all that money to return and finish their education. I hope that is what happened. But I also know how for young adults, life can interfere with a goal like obtaining a college education if you don’t finish it while young. Young people get married, most have children quickly, start working whatever job they can get, and life goes on into covering a growing family’s necessities. For many women, college may be attempted but is never completed, left as a dream and perhaps their life’s biggest regret. I grew up seeing it often.
It was a C-SPAN series on all the American presidents, starting with George Washington, that made me realize why I was so adamant about the American right to attend college. The program on President Johnson revealed he was the one who believed a college education should be provided to any American who wanted it. I wanted it, more than anything. I’d pay for it one way or another. And I believed (and still do) that in this country, anyone who wants a college education should be able to get it. Johnson, architect of the Great Society, supported a college education because he knew the number one reason for poverty was the death of a parent, usually the father. A college education was a tremendous leg-up for a family facing generational poverty.
So I’d like to thank President Johnson who somehow, probably while speaking in his televised national addresses overheard as I played in the living room, put the idea in my little head that I and all Americans had the right to a college education. Still believe in that right. You just gotta work for it and yes pay for it, too. I thought that was what the federal student loans were for.
Nowadays our nation has changed from cheering on and even encouraging young Americans to go to college, to pursue that BIG dream if it’s their life’s goal and a necessity for specific career paths. No, now we hear mostly from bitter folks (ironically even by those with a college education) who believe college to be a complete waste of money and time, that people are much better off getting a trade (that’s like college, too) or just any job after high school and somehow working their way up to the top. College has become way, way too expensive, and many graduates will never pay off their debt.
This is the fast-paced high-tech age. America cannot be the greatest nation on earth if only a small percentage of the population is college educated. Most jobs do not require a college degree, and everyone doesn’t need a college education. But I believe a lot of people would benefit from it. There is nothing wrong with gaining more education and knowledge, to become smarter.
The highly criticized and equally lauded multi-billion-dollar cost to reduce student loans (ONLY to people earning less than $75,000 a year) will take many years and is, believe it or not, small potatoes within our very wealthy nation’s federal budget, in the ballpark of $22 trillion. Compared to two perpetual wars and all the other ga-zillion-dollar misadventures in which our nation has engaged in recent decades under ‘fiscal conservative’ administrations—the real reason for turning modern Americans into grumpy gusses—the student loan reduction act isn’t going to break the bank.