Are You Over 60 and Still dealing With Student Loan Debt ?
When I first became aware that five million people over sixty years of age, were still owing a
whopping 31 billion dollars on their education loans. I thought its’ those darn Baby Boomers
again. That was before I did a little research; and found, to my surprise- not. It was another
Ginormous banking scam. So nobly titled as government backed guaranteed student loans.
Meek and innocent sounding names like Sallie Mae. Who was it that told us these were
government operated financial institutions? Like good ole cousin Fannie Mae and uncle Freddie
Mac. Recently I viewed ” Too Big To Fail” (HBO). For what had to be the 7th time; where in the scene supposed to be set at The Beijing Olympics in the summer of 2008 William Hurt (playing Henry Paulson) was seated next to the Chinese Financial Minister at a banquet ceremony, who said to “Hank” under his breath “The Russians called us a couple of weeks ago and said that if we and them got together and dumped all of our combined Freddie and Fannie stock at the same time, we could destroy The American Economy, and of course we declined”.
In the middle of the 1990s until now we have lost most and that is if not all; of our consumer protection blankets. Surprisingly- not again, by federal legislation that was passed through Congress. Who needs it-right? Mr. Fox slipped into the hen house more than once, on Student Aid programs, interest rate controls and The Grandaddy Gaffe, of loan repayment policies.(Collinge)p.iiv
I returned to college late myself the last time at fifty eight; I do recall as I was signing the school’s Master Promissory Note. The rate was 3.4% unsubsidized. This year that’s gone up to 6.8%. That my wife was standing there smiling sweetly and said :”You know that if you die before you pay back all of your loans, they will come after me and your kid’s for the money”. My usual answer was something about burying me face down; but on this occasion, this is deadly serious came to my mind.
In 1993 President Bill Clinton signed legislation to create the new direct loan system to allow students a program with reasonable repay time limits and a reasonable interest rate. By 1995 Sallie Mae had lost half of it’s stock value. The executive board member and now CEO Albert Lord ( Penn State grad) had positioned Sallie for a successful privatization reorganization bid for Sallie and her swift Phoenix like new face and maximum profitability, coincidentally in concert with the removal of the previously legislated repayment standards in place. Thank You Congress for giving us The Pell Grant for another year.
references
Allan Collinge.The Student Loan Scam.(2009). Beacon Press. Boston
http//:Student Loan Justice.org
111Th Congress Thomas
