The cost of higher education has gotten a heck of a lot higher in recent years.Even a willingness to take on large amounts of student debt is no longer a guarantee of future earnings. Our present system of financing for higher education is definitely broken and affordable college an oxymoron.Still,hope remains.The session I attended last week on this topic was packed,and had a large proportion of students.Here are my notes.

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The cost of higher education has gotten a heck of a lot higher in recent years.  I have witnessed this phenomenon first hand in the decade that separates my oldest and youngest entering college. Even a willingness to take on large amounts of student debt is no longer a guarantee of future earnings.  Our present system of financing for higher education is definitely broken and affordable college an oxymoron.  Still, hope remains. The session I attended last week on this topic was packed, and had a large proportion of students. Here are my notes.

The panelists:

Rev. Jesse Jackson

Robert Shireman. fomer director of Institute for College Access and Success and a Deputy Undersecretary of Education.

Carmen Berkley of the US Student Association, “the oldest national student-led organization dedicated to students' interests.“ She made the point that students are in a much better position to ask for student debt relief, after the huge youth GOTV (get out the vote) effort last November. Rev. Jackson said the same thing, in terms of progressive voters. In fact, panelists and participants alike echoed the leit motif of this conference: The Obama victory was only the beginning. Now, the hard work begins.  

Rev. Jackson opened his remarks by asking how many people in the room had student loans. Many hands went up.  Just how much ranged from a “low” of $8,000 to over $150,000 for a bachelor's and graduate degree. Panel member Carmen Berkley, head of the USSA, is herself saddled with $80,000 of debt; her monthly payments are over $900.

The moderator pointed that, until two years ago,  President and Michelle Obama had substantial student loans. Were it not for Obama’s two recent best-sellers, the First Couple would have entered the White House with their student loans trailing behind them.

Jesse Jackson characterized the present set-up as “guaranteed debt without guaranteed jobs” and claims that the government is “scalping” student loans. Why, he asked, do students get less advantageous interest rates than the banks, which pay less than 1%? The economic stimulus must be applied from the bottom up  - starting with homeowners and students.  The present corporate bailout, on the other hand, doling out billions to AIG, banks, and brokerage houses, is definitely a top-down system.

Simply put, private lenders are making way too much money on young students, at the bottom of the economic food chain. We must pressure universities, lenders, and our elected officials to change the present situation.

Realities of Higher Education and their Ramifications

Two out of every three students pay for college by borrowing. More people are borrowing, and they are borrowing more, to keep up with escalating tuition costs. The neediest students end up borrowing at the highest interest rates, in a kind of education redlining.

This is bad news for our country.  In the last three decades, state school tuitions have tripled while earnings sagged, further discouraging potential students from taking on large debt. It’s a tremendous waste of human resources when higher education is out of reach for so many of our citizens. Student debt shackles a large portion of those just entering the job market, making it impossible to ever get out from under the loans in order to buy a house, a car, or even less expensive consumer goods.

The decrease in the number of college students and graduates is also detrimental to our competitiveness on the international market. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, public policy was directed towards achieving greater rates of college attendance. We were #1 in the world in this regard; largely because prospective students could pay for 3/4 of their education through federal grants.  Today, the US is not even in the top ten, world-wide.  Quite a come-down and not a good portent of what lies ahead.

Panelists and attendees alike supported increasing Pell grants and making them an entitlement, like Social Security.  Another goal is for the government to set student loans at the same preferable rate that banks get. Private lenders making out like bandits with their extortionate rates should also be removed from the mix.

Banks, corporations, and even countries can declare bankruptcy and escape their debts;  student loans can not be discharged. One session participant recounted the poignant story of parents whose daughter was killed in a car accident. She died, but her student debt lived on, to be assumed up by her grieving parents.  

During the Q and A, a long-time college professor’s observed that, in the ‘90s, many of his students attended school full-time while still managing to work 20 hours a week. Later, some juggled full-time school while working 40 hours a week. Most recently, students are working 60 hours a week and attempting part or full time study.  Needless to say, this has greatly impaired these students’ ability to participate in college life.

In contrast, this professor cited public policy in China during the ‘80s. The government offered free college tuition to all takers, with future teachers getting a healthy stipend in addition.  We have all seen how China became an economic giant.    

A promising sign

According to Robert Shireman, the Department of Education is instituting a new program next month which offers relief to those with federal student loans. Even those who are no longer in school can take advantage of new, lower interest rates. Keep your eyes peeled for information about this program and pass it on to the students (and former students) you know. Unfortunately, those suffering under the yoke of private lenders will find no salvation there.  The private loan interest rate for USSA president Carmen Berkley, for example, is a horrendous 19%.

One student semi-facetiously suggested student loan forgiveness as one easy way to stimulate the economy. He claimed that he would happily spend money currently set aside for loan repayment to buy all sorts of consumer goods. As the corporate bail-out beneficiaries cart away piles of tax dollars, this suggestion does have merit. At least, in the case of student loans, our entire economy would benefit. We need to view students as an investment in our future and not merely as a commodity to exploit.  Doing otherwise will only hasten our decline.

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link to first article in series Notes from America's Future NOW Conference

Authors Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Authors Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.