re: John Oliver Goes Hard on Student Loans Forgiveness: LSU and LA College Funding Addressed

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which at the soonest only happens after 10 years of payments

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unless youre a teacher in a high needs area. I got half of mine knocked out (wouldve been the whole thing if i had just gotten a degree in education but i digress) after 5 years at my current school.

I listened to the whole thing. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

1. These kids not understanding how loans work and being given a pass for it is bunk. Get educated on how it works. The only way paying more than the loan balance over 10 years happens is you're not paying the full amortized amount and the remaining interest is capitalized to the principal.
2. Capitalized interest needs to stop and those who have been getting hit with it need to have it taken into account. I'm more than happy to cut a break to someone who has more than paid their balance back in capitalized interest.
3. I thought it was interesting that early student loans targeted STEM and expanded from there into other occupations deemed necessary for the growth of the nation. We are a long way from where it started where we now give loans for anything under the sun. Need to dial it back and cut out the garbage.
4. Occupations that don't really need degrees need to get back to more on-the-job training.
5. Any talk of fully tax payer funded higher education needs to come with discussion about assessing aptitude out of high school as well as rate of return on a chosen major. No, we aren't just better off as a country with more "educated" people. We need to be educated in what is most economically beneficial. Go to Youtube, the internet, or the library for the other stuff.
6. Speaking of rate of return, they brought up 18 year olds can get $100k in loans to go to college; education loans need to be underwritten just like any other major loan like houses and cars. Bad credit risks get bad terms and shorter leashes than good credit risks. Good credit risk would mean high GPA (highschool and maintaining in college) and majors in high demand with solid earning potential. The bad credit risks need to prove themselves after 1 semester and get yanked if they don't cut it.
7. These kids with $25k or less need to get a grip. That's more than manageable if they are willing to do what is necessary in the short term. Lean up your life; live as cheaply as possible and they'd be out of debt in just a few years.
8. Fix the problem at the university level. All this band aid stuff is just buying votes. We have too many students enrolled in too many things. Colleges will likely fight tooth and nail to keep the loans flowing and enrollment up, but that's the problem. A lot of fat out there that can be trimmed.

No doubt the issue stems from Universities finding a way to spend the unlimited stream of income instead of keeping tuition consistent. Tuition almost needs to be capped and public universities will be forced to prioritize funding rather than relying on increased loans to offset.

The LSU UREC is likely not one of the main issues. That was voted and funded over like 20 years. I'd need to see a breakdown of tuition and university expenses. But with more and more classes moving online, it should be easier to start cutting costs.

Not to mention that my interest with a federal gov loan was 6.5 and 8.5% when prime was zero for nearly the whole repayment period...

I understand admin costs but the Fed govt is borrowing from itself and charging an extremely inflated interest rates. There's no way to refinance without losing the potential for forgiveness and forbearance etc.

An easy solution is to have the fed refinance the loans as you progress in repayment, so that you end up paying the original costs of the loan plus some nominal interest rate or something just over prime averaged over the repayment time frame.

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This is exactly what is happening though. When I first started paying, the payment amount was less than the interest and they would just add the remaining to principle. I didn't make enough to pay more at the time, so until I got approved for a repayment plan, I had to just accept it.
The video was spot on and not an exaggeration at all on how ridiculous the student loans, repayments, approval/review times, stupidity of the services, etc.
Outright forgiveness isn’t going to happen, and it shouldn't, so those acting like it is can relax. The problem is not the borrowers (some definitely need more education on loans), it's the bloated cost of education and the fact that loans can be obtained for anything (there's no difference or value given to one degree vs another). Also, it seems like many jobs are getting in on the scam eith universities and requiring a degree for something that doesn't need a degree.

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I pretty much addressed all of this. Even stated capitalized interest needs to stop. Even if it does, college student loan borrowers need to get themselves educated on how loans work. The information is out there and it is easy to come by, so there's no reason for not knowing how loans work.

I will add that while I wish it weren't so and think that they should, financial entities (universities, banks, car dealerships, cell phone companies, etc...) will only inform as much as they deem they have to and then it's on the consumer to ask for the rest or read all the details or figure it out on their own. That's something that needs to stop. There's zero reason why they can't sit these kids down and really give a good rundown of what their decision entails based on the financing required the and the job they will qualify for. Instead we get what amounts to "it's not my fault you didn't know better or didn't ask or didnt' read."

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yeeep. to be fair on the lazy river thing the students voted on the fee increase that went to it so im fine with it in that regard. the optics still arent great but i get where it was coming from.

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Well one issue on that front is that, the students who are voting on the measure are not the students that are going to keep paying for it.


For example, when I was going Nicholls 99-2003, there was no organized student recreation center. They finally passed a student assessment fee for it in my junior year that went into effect my senior year.

So, I paid a fee for a new student recreation center that was yet to be built. It took them several years to finalize plans and construct it. Since I was a commuter, I would have never used it.

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Sorry, it's bullshite. We have so many fees that are unnecessary. I realize this one increase was small, but it all adds up.

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$40/month for what the urec is these days is insane value. If you had been inside of it and experienced what it use to be like, you would understand that value it has on campus.

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The students voted on a tax to fund the lazy river…didn’t they

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My point is that the current students vote on the fees, but they are ongoing perpetual fees that do not end. It is not like a millage or other special tax.

In many cases, there are no revotes renewals that students vote on to decide to increase or decrease fees. Once a fee is added usually it will stay on forever and they will just add additional fee for this and that. It is about as bad as flying with Spirit Airlines. If the federal government was serious about junk fees maybe they can look at universities and government fees before complaining about private sector fees.

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Student loan forgiveness makes me irrationally angry. Why not drop the interest rate to 1% instead of forgiving the whole damn thing.

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They realistically could
* cap rates at 3% (this was my rate when i paid student loans from 99-09)
* modify amortization schedules to start at 50/50 principal/interest
* apply a govt assisted 'bonus payment' directly to principal every 6 months of on-time payments

Real solutions are out there for the government to help the debtors and taxpayers. But nobody will meet in the middle. idiots.