Is a College Degree Still Worth It?
According to a new report by Anthony V. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, full-time, full-year workers whose highest degree is a bachelor's make 74 percent more, on average, than those whose highest attainment is a high-school diploma. Bottom line: college is still a good investment. Among some of the report's most significant findings: Even as the housing bubble seems to be dissipating, unemployment rates for recent architecture graduates have remained high (12.8%). Graduate degrees…
Student Loan Interest Bill We Can Live With
Student loan interest rates are set to rise in July unless Congress acts. Typically I'd be pushing for Congress to come up with a more permanent solution, but a temporary measure seems like the best we can get at this late hour, because the proposed longer term "solutions" are in fact a hit to the wallets of students and families. For instance, the bill the House passed last week is worse than doing nothing and actually makes things more expensive for students. I applaud Senator Elizabeth Warren for introducing the Bank…
Generation I.O.U.
Heather joined a panel of education, policy and financial experts this week to help find prescriptions for what is ailing a generation burdened by student loan debt. Watch the summit, sponsored by Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! News, and tell us what you think.
Mothers Like Low Interest Rates for Student Loans
President Obama and House Republicans seek a long-term fix to the federal student loan rate problem. Without Congressional action, subsidized Stafford federal student loan rates will double to 6.8% on July 1. Last year, Congress extended the deadline that would have mandated federal interest rates to rise from 3.4% to 6.8%, effectively punting the issue down the road one year. Here is a brief summary of the four proposed solutions on the table: 1. President Obama's Fiscal Year 2014 Budget Request: Employs a market-based solution for setting…
House Republicans’ Student Loan Interest Bill Actually Not That Bad
Minnesota Congressman John Kline (R-MN), the Chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, co-introduced legislation yesterday to tackle the upcoming student loan interest rate hike by returning to variable interest rates on student loans. The Smarter Solutions for Students Act, otherwise known as H.R. 1911, seeks to tie the federal student loan interest rate to a market-based interest rate (similar to the plan put forth by President…
