Will Proposed Cuts to Public Service Loan Forgiveness Impact Existing Borrowers?
Us student loan borrowers are understandably concerned about parts of President Obama's proposed budget, but we would do well to remember that the budget proposal itself cannot, does not, and never will determine whether any future cuts to student loan forgiveness would apply to existing borrowers. The offending document, the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2015, is a political document. It consists of 212 pages of budget overviews organized by agency and summary tables of the dollar amounts in question.…
5 Tips for Managing Student Debt
Heather loves National Public Radio and offering free advice to student loan borrowers and their families. She got to enjoy both last week as she sat down with Public Radio International's nationally-syndicated talkshow host Tavis Smiley to discuss how to avoid student loan debt or what to do once you’re in student loan debt. Listen to the interview here. Heather's Five Tips for Managing Student Loan Debt: 1. Everyone should fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 2. Students should choose…
U.S. Will Earn $66 Billion From Student Loans
Thanks to our friends at The Chronicle of Higher Education for bringing this story to our attention. In an article by Mark Keierleber, the Chronicle notes that a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office projects that the U.S. will generate nearly $66 billion in income from loans issued from 2007-2012. The report, "Federal Loans: Borrower Interest Rates Cannot Be Set in Advance to Precisely and Consistently Balance Federal Revenues and Costs," highlights the difficulty in trying to predict what cost of future…
Fed’s Debt Collector Scrutinized for Overly Aggressive Tactics
As many of you know by now, Heather is not a big fan of private student loans, considering their lack of borrower protections and flexibility when it comes time for repayment. Borrowers of federal student loans enjoy many benefits including fixed interest rates and a number of income-based repayment plans to select from for repayment. Bottom line, federal student loans are almost always preferred to private ones. For a more complete comparison of federal versus private student loans, click here. But, as with everything…
Teachers Don’t Need Lip Service, They Need Cash Money!
Teachers need a whole lot more than a few narrowly targeted and not particularly generous student loan forgiveness programs. Here in North Carolina, teachers haven’t received a meaningful raise for the last seven years. During the 2013 legislative session, North Carolina lawmakers decided to keep teachers’ pay frozen, eliminate master’s degree supplemental pay, strip teachers of tenure and dramatically underfund instructional supplies and teacher assistants. Ugh. Student loan forgiveness programs for the benefit of…
