Tuition Loan Crisis

Talk about mixed emotions when I think about the crisis of unpaid tuition loans. I sympathize with those caught in the situation while realizing that it is generally a crisis created by their own poor choices. They chose to get an education that they could not afford.

First and foremost is my personal advocacy of free higher education for all qualified individuals, period.  I think that education should be merit-based and not financial-based, as it perpetuates the social gap.  However, while the system that we do have in place exists, people need to live with the system.

To those who know me also know that I have a dog in the hunt here.  I was unable to pay for my advanced education right out of high school and had to regroup and rethink both my education and career path based upon my ability to pay my way.  I had some help but it was ultimately up to me to make it happen. 

I am not going to harangue and beat my breast about what could have been.  It is a waste of time.  I had a good career, it was just not everything that I envisioned and because of the education choices I had to make, it started extremely slowly and was hampered at times.  I ultimately got a degree thirty years after I graduated from high school but it was not to further my education so much as it was to formalize the education level that I had achieved on my own.  It definitely did not do anything in aiding me achieve any career paths that I had not already achieved.

Why is that important?  Simple.  I got some student loans.  I could have acquired more.  Possibly even enough to have obtained a degree, maybe even enough to get an advanced degree; who knows.  Instead, I quit school several times and went to work and save enough money to go back for a quarter or two at a business college to get an education that would get me a job and to be able to pay the loans that I had as fast as possible – which I did.

That does not seem to be the game plan now.  The plan seems to be to get the degree, borrowing anywhere and everywhere you can, as much as you need to, and hoping that you can pay it off on the backside.  Admittedly, the pressure to have a degree is higher than it was 40-50 years ago.  In those days on 2-3% of high school graduates obtained a degree, whereas now it is more like 25%.  Thus, the minimum requirement for a job is higher than it was then.  I understand that.  But that does not abrogate the degree-seeker from her/his obligation for being responsible for their actions.

On the one hand, I totally understand the need for some relief from burdensome tuition loan repayments, but on the other hand, the recipient of the loan knew, or should have known, that they were obligated to pay it back.  Being young and/or naïve does not cut it.  In my way of thinking; you sign the paper, you take the money, and you owe the bill: simple as that.  If you do not have a plan to pay it back, do not take out the loan, no matter how attractive the goal is.  Life does not owe you a darned thing.

Equally, I do think there should be ways to allow for at least partial repayment of those loans.  Public service, pro bono works, etc.  But that is not the whole solution.  Taking out loans with no understanding of the ramifications is not an excuse for someone to bail you out.