tagged w/ Student Loan Debt
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Congress and the U.S. Education Department are scrutinizing for-profit colleges, which received almost $32 billion in federal grants and loans in the 2009-2010 school year. Students at those schools are defaulting on government loans at higher rates than those who attend nonprofit and public institutions.
http://veracitystew.com/2011/12/15/the-for-profit-college-lobbying-scam/Congress and the U.S. Education Department are scrutinizing for-profit colleges, which... more
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President Obama has finally realized that the only way he's going to get something done -- anything, no matter how small the measure -- is to bypass the obstructionist brinkmanship that has become synonymous with the Congressional Teapublicans, and enact a few Executive Orders to address a areas that average Americans struggle with under our present economic inequality.
http://veracitystew.com/2011/10/26/obama-side-steps-gop-pushes-plan-to-ease-student-loan-debt/President Obama has finally realized that the only way he's going to get... more
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APNewsBreak: Dems mum on Obama proposal on debt collectors pursuing money owed government
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government/apnewsbreak-dems-mum-on-obama-proposal-on-debt-collectors-pursuing-money-owed-government/2011/10/04/gIQATDh5JL_story.html
WASHINGTON — To the dismay of consumer groups and the discomfort of Democrats, President Barack Obama wants Congress to make it easier for private debt collectors to call the cellphones of consumers delinquent on student loans and other billions owed the federal government.
The change “is expected to provide substantial increases in collections, particularly as an increasing share of households no longer have landlines and rely instead on cellphones,” the administration wrote recently. The little-noticed recommendation would apply only to cases in which money is owed the government, and is tucked into the mammoth $3 trillion deficit-reduction plan the president submitted to Congress.
Despite the claim, the administration has not yet developed an estimate of how much the government would collect, and critics reject the logic behind the recommendation.
“Enabling robo-calls (to cellphones) is just going to lead to more harassment and abuse, and it’s not going to help the government collect more money,” said Lauren Saunders of the Boston-based National Consumer Law Center. “People aren’t paying their student loans because they can’t find a job.”
Whatever the impact on the budget deficit, the proposal has aligned the White House with the private debt collection industry — frequently the subject of consumer complaints — at a time when the economy is weak, unemployment is high and Obama is embarking on his campaign for re-election.
Democrats in Congress who frequently support the president, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, declined through aides to say whether they favor or oppose the plan.
Nor was there any reaction from two other members of the party’s leadership in the Senate, Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chuck Schumer of New York. Both men frequently take the side of consumers in legislative struggles.
Several aides, speaking on condition of anonymity so they could talk freely, said Democrats do not want to oppose the president but are unable to support the request.
Mark Schiffman, a spokesman for ACA International, an industry trade association, said the administration “basically has come to the same solution we have” at a time when an increasing number of Americans have no landline phone to receive calls.
The change “is something we have been advocating for,” he said, although he added his organization did not have direct discussions with administration officials in advance.
Schiffman noted that debt collectors have long been allowed to make robo-calls to landline phones. He said automatic dialing is a more efficient way to contact consumers who are overdue in their payments, and the industry wants it allowed in all cases, not solely those involving debts owed to the government, as Obama has proposed. Legislation along those lines was introduced in the House last week.
Federal law currently permits private debt collectors to use automatic dialing in trying to contact consumers on their landline phones. They also are permitted to make individually-dialed calls to some cellphones.
The request comes at a time when the government is looking for ways to collect tens of billions of dollars.
According to a report by the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service, the Education and the Health and Human Services departments as well as FMS itself referred debts totaling $35.9 billion to private debt collectors in the 2010 fiscal year.
The Education Department accounted for the largest share by far — $28.8 billion referred to 22 private debt collection companies. The firms collected $685 million outright, and another $1.7 billion was recast into agreements that are designed to be paid monthly, according to the report.
Education Department officials did not respond to several requests to speak on the record about the proposal.
According to written responses the department provided to questions, it hires private collection agencies in part so the government can gain “the benefits of greater collections” through the use of new technology that is developed by private industry.
Collection agencies can receive a fee of as much as 17.5 percent of the amount they recover.
A different federal agency, the Federal Trade Commission, collects extensive records about the private debt collection industry in general.
“The FTC receives more complaints about the debt collection industry than any other specific industry,” according to an annual report to Congress, more than 100,000 in 2010.
The complaints fall into several categories, citing alleged harassment, demands for impermissibly large payments, failure to provide required consumer notice and threatening dire consequences such as jail time....APNewsBreak: Dems mum on Obama proposal on debt collectors pursuing money owed... more
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As you read this, there are over 18 million students enrolled at the nearly 5,000 colleges and universities currently in operation across the United States. Many of these institutions of higher learning are now charging $20,000, $30,000 or even $40,000 a year for tuition and fees. That does not even count living expenses. Today it is 400% more expensive to go to college in the United States than it was just 30 years ago. Most of these 18 million students have been told over and over that a "higher education" is the key to getting a good job and living the American Dream. They have been told not to worry about how much it costs and that there is plenty of financial aid (mostly made up of loans) available. Now our economy is facing the biggest student loan debt bubble in the history of the world, and when our new college graduates enter the "real world" they are finding out that the good jobs they were promised are very few and far between. As millions of Americans wake up and start realizing that the tens of thousands of dollars that they have poured into their college educations was mostly a waste, will the great college education scam finally be exposed?As you read this, there are over 18 million students enrolled at the nearly 5,000... more
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If you are one of the nation's college graduates living with your parents, shackled with student loans -- between $20,000 and $80,000 --, and you're scare because you can't find a job in the poor economic climate.
Cheer up. It could be worse.
If you are one of the nation's college graduates living with your parents, shackled with student loans -- between $20,000 and $80,000 --, and you're not worried because you're banking on all of it to just go away. Run!
Fly away and disappear, because your student loans won't.
Mark Jesperson has $350,000 in student loans, and he must pay it all back.
The Eighth US Circuity Court of Appeals has ruled that he will have to pay back every cent.
Student loans are incredibly difficult to discharge, even if you're debt load is "shockingly immense". This is because a borrower must show "undue hardship", a higher burden than required to successfully declare bankruptcy for most consumer debt.
"The system's set up as such that most people -- people like myself -- cannot complete a professional degree without the help of student loans," said Mark Jesperson. "There's no starting over me....this is it."If you are one of the nation's college graduates living with your parents,... more
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Student Loan Debt Sucks- so AfterSputnik is having a giant art show/party to address it and raise awareness!
Friday, April 10 there will be live music, Saturday April 11 a spoken word event and DJ. And of course, art from 30+ of NYC's rising artists on display-
including YOURS TRULY! Woohoo!
Find out info here: http://deliatheartist.blogspot.com/
Buy tickets to night events here: http://aftersputnikartproject.eventbrite.com/
Visit the AfterSputnik site here: http://aftersputnik.com/
Did you know that the student loan industry and the space race are tied together in our history? Find out more at their site!
If you are in NYC this weekend, come on out and say hello, support a cool cause and see fantastic art, music and poetry!Student Loan Debt Sucks- so AfterSputnik is having a giant art show/party to address... more
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"If a lender makes a loan and the borrower repays it with interest, the lender profits. If the borrower can't repay, the lender loses out. It's simple finance, or so you doubtless think. Silly you.
For the student loan industry, the reality is the opposite: Lenders hope their borrowers default, because they actually make more money that way. Not only can they charge usurious interest, but they also get to bury defaulted borrowers with punishing penalties and fees. Moreover, student loans are the only loans for which bankruptcy protection is prohibited. Pile on collection fees from agencies assigned to chase and harass borrowers for what they owe, and repayments can inflate to several times the original balance."
More at link, referencing a book by Alan Michael Collinge about this subject! I'm invovled in an art project all about student loan debt that goes up in April and I think it's affecting many people today especially nowadays! Do you have student loan debt? How do you feel about it?"If a lender makes a loan and the borrower repays it with interest, the lender... more
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