No more student loans!!

So there’s a group of 15 college students who are leading a protest designed to pressure the government into forgiving their student loan debt. Now, we all know that student loan debt can be brutal for those who don’t pay back the money. Our government is all too happy to sit back and allow the Education Dept to jack up folks credit and financial security in a number of ways: either by loans going into default status, causing folks to lose their paychecks, tax refunds, or even a portion of their Social Security. Of course let’s not even talk about the difficulty in attempting to buy a house, car or get a job.

Now I am a firm believer in higher education, I believe that we all owe it to ourselves to expose our minds to the myriad of subjects and vats of information and allow our worlds to be open to new experiences that we never would have had otherwise. This is the reason why I don’t agree with the phrase “college isn’t for everyone”. Now, tests and homework, deadlines and pressure from professors and grades and all that crap, sure that may not be for everyone, hell, it isn’t for anyone! Let’s be clear on that. I don’t know anyone who went to college, grad school and beyond who when asked “What was your favorite part of the college process?” would turn around and say, “hey my favorite part was all the damn work and tests and pressure! Yeah and let’s not forget the grading process which totally sucks but I loved it!” Um no.

But learning is for everyone. Why would you short change yourself? Why cut yourself off from receiving knowledge? Gaining an understanding of how society works, and discovering a talent for something that you can actually put to use at a job or for a potential career is for everyone. And that should not come with the ridiculous tuition charges and outrageous fees for books and the numerous fees that these institutions that call themselves non profits are allowed to get away with.

According to the Education Department, it has broad authority to cancel federal student loans when colleges violate students’ rights and state law. There is even a clause in federal student loan agreements that says: “In some cases, you may assert, as a defense against collection of your loan, that the school did something wrong or failed to do something that it should have done.”

How often would you bet the dept of ed actually upholds that clause? Smh. The very fact that universities and colleges are allowed to charge as much as they do should be a violation right from the jump. The fact that top administrators make so much money and yet still justify tuition hikes, that should be a violation.

Ahh… I digress. . The bottom line is this, as long as this country maintains it’s out of whack stance on higher education in this country, from how its structured to the financial costs, I will maintain my stance which is in solidarity with the college students. I feel like most folks are forced to make the decision not to further their education because they’re too worried about having to pay back student loans, which is outrageous. And for me, the answer was easy. I opted to further my education which I knew would best serve me and my family. As for the dept of ed and the numerous debt collectors who “buy” the student loans? I see you. You got your hustle/business going and your making millions of dollars off of us. Well go ahead and Get in line, ya’ll can wait.