Student Loans Aren’t Rocket Science, They’re Worse*
by Heather Jarvis, originally posted October 4, 2011 as guest blogger on Binksty.com Our system of access to higher education is debt based. Want an education? Buy it. Don’t have enormous piles of money lying around? Borrow it. Trying to make good decisions about the best options for paying back that money you borrowed? Good luck! In order for a student to understand his or her options and make good decisions about how best to repay student loans, the first thing every borrower must do is understand exactly…
The Unpleasant Truth about the Effect of Losing the Interest Subsidy on Student Borrowers
Subsidized loans have historically been available to students with demonstrated financial need. Subsidized loans help students manage the cost of education, because in the case of subsidized loans, the government pays the interest that accrues on the loan while the student is in school. When students borrow unsubsidized loans, interest will begin to accrue immediately, and any unpaid interest will be capitalized, or added to the principal of the loan. Capitalization is bad, assuming you don’t want to pay interest on interest. …
Want to help the public interest legal community? Please participate in NALP’s brief online survey.
The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) is conducting a brief, anonymous survey of nonprofit and government public-interest law offices throughout the country about 1) recent law student and attorney hiring and 2) hiring expectations for the immediate future NALP will use the data to produce a report about what the public interest employment market looks like now and how it may change in the near future. NALP will release the report later this fall. The report will be made freely available online. The report will NOT identify…
Film Review - Default: The Student Loan Documentary
The overwhelming majority of student loan borrowers are working hard to meet their financial obligations. Life is full of unanticipated twists and turns, everybody gets sick sometimes, and it’s just not true that if you work hard, you’ll always get ahead. Default: The Student Loan Documentary demonstrates how student debt can be hard to manage, especially for people who face underemployment, unemployment or illness. This 27 minute documentary chronicles the stories of student loan borrowers, and explores the dire consequences…
CLAARP Benefits NOT Taxable as Income
Sweet! The Internal Revenue Service has determined that recipients of the short-lived Civil Legal Assistance Attorney Repayment Program (CLARRP) do NOT need to pay income tax on the benefits they receive. I was somewhat concerned that repayment benefits might be deemed taxable, because both Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) and Federal Direct Loans were eligible for repayment assistance under CLAARP, and tax free benefits require forgiving debt owed to the forgiver, rather than repaying debt owed to another. In it's analyis, the IRS…
