Shocker - Common Core not giving good outcomes

[dfrecore]

Most importantly, though, these families also have the funds to pursue higher education, which is often considered beyond the reach of many Americans. I've found that even on this forum, one that intends to democratize access to higher education, posting opinions about universal education or student loan forgiveness is met with refrains similar to "I've already got mine." It presents a really remarkable dichotomy for me, but that's politicizing a topic, too... 

So, first, since you don't live here, you won't be paying for the degrees of anyone, so it's kind of hard to take this seriously from you.

BUT, if we were to forgive ALL $1.5 Trillion in student loans right now, that would mean that everyone, including poor and middle-class taxpayers, and including people who already paid for their own college (or chose not to go) would be paying for people who chose to go somewhere they maybe couldn't afford.  I know LOTS of people who are struggling to pay their own way through college, or for their kids college, or who went to community college first, to avoid student loans.  LOTS of people who worked 2-3 jobs to pay their way through college (or for their kids' college).  You're telling everyone who does NOT have college debt, that they need to pay for those that do, even if those people had other options, and chose to go the debt way instead.  You're telling everyone who paid off their own debt, that they're now paying for everyone else's debt.

Also, this doesn't address the problem of the cost of college, which is just about 100% of the problem right now.  Colleges have been on a spending spree for 30-40 years.  They build bigger, nicer dorms (granite counters, hard-wood floors, private bathrooms, walk-in closets).  Have better food (weekly lobster dinners or an on-campus steakhouse).  And better amenities (lazy rivers, climbing walls, free ice-cream) than you could ever imagine.  Professors are paid more to teach less.  Spending is out of control, and it's not on professors or other necessary people.  It's in administration, with an ever-increasing salaries paid to and ever-increasing number of deans and professional staffers.  The costs balloon on an annual basis, and there is no reason for schools to watch the bottom line.  If you were to pay off everyone's student loans today, many of those students would go get another student loan for next year's tuition.  AND, if students thought we'd be doing this again, MORE students would choose to get a student loan in the hopes that they'd be paid off the next time around.  That means students who previously considered working, or going to CC for 2 years, or choosing a less expensive school to avoid debt, would have no reason to do any of this.  Instead, they'd choose the most expensive school, or their "dream school" or go out-of-state, because they'd know there was no reason to be prudent.

Let's let the market take care of this, which we are already seeing - many families are seeing the student loan crisis and saying "no thanks" and sending their kids to CC first, kids are taking gap years to save up money, students are choosing trade schools, students are choosing less expensive options, etc.  The market WILL take care of this problem if we let it.  But paying for everyone who made bad decisions is NOT going to make people make better decisions in the future.