I voted for President Obama twice, so this isn’t ritualized
Obama-bashing….
The recent presidential headlines about making it easier to repay
student loans are obscuring some of the basic facts and basic problems:
F’rinstance, way too many students with student loans don’t have
degrees, because they didn’t finish their programs.
Way too many students have burdensome student loan obligations because
they overpaid for their college degrees.
And, anyway, apparently most of the 37 million Americans who have student
debt didn’t learn enough at college to be able to pay attention to the
government’s high profile efforts and take advantage of easier loan repayment
terms.
The “Pay As You Earn” program that lets borrowers cap repayments at 10%
of discretionary income has been around for a couple years, but only about 4%
of the nation’s borrowers have signed up for it. More than 35 million Americans
with student loans haven’t taken advantage of the easier payment/forgiveness
benefits.
NPR says too many borrowers don’t even know about the program. I can’t
explain that one to you….
NPR also says—no surprise—that loan servicers, including the
quasi-government Sallie Mae and other private financial companies, have little
incentive to promote any loan payment adjustment option because it reduces
their servicing fee revenue. It seems that some of the servicers make it
difficult for borrowers to reduce their interest rates and repayment schedules.
I think I can explain that one to you….
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