Student Loan Debt Crisis Town Hall – November 20, 2020
Friday, November 20, 2020 3:00 PM (EST)
Panelists include:
PAUL GRONDAHL – Director New York State Writers Institute (host)
MATT TAIBBI – Author, Rolling Stone Magazine, Reporter (moderator)
Michael J. Camoin – Videos For Change Productions, SCARED TO DEBT (filmmaker)
ALAN COLLINGE – Founder of StudentLoanJustice.Org (activist)
CATHERINE AUSTIN FITT – Investment Advisor (former Sallie Mae )
THOMAS BORGERS – Wall Street Banker, Financial Investigator
I have known Alan probably a decade or so and am familiar with his efforts and organization to change the laws governing bankruptcy for student loans. Alan has worked tirelessly on this issue which impacts tens of thousands of younger people who can not get the same relief as businesses and other citizens have through bankruptcy. Our president-elect has played a major role along with other political and financial interests in denying any type of relief for student loan debt.
Along with Alan, the list of participants to this Town Hall should make this interesting. I will be watching it and listening to the conversation. Perhaps, you can join too?
How about getting the banks out of the student loan business entirely? We love the Prussian pedagogy when it comes to indoctrinating young people to the status quo in primary and secondary schools, but when it comes to managing the student’s cost for higher education, then not so much.
Ron:
Banks/Commercial Loan companies are out of 90% of the student loan business. What we find are servicers who are doing poorly with students in advising them and servcing their loans. It borders on malfeasance.
“The situation is so challenging that even a state banking regulator (financial attorney) struggled to figure it out. Bruce Adams, the general counsel for Connecticut’s department of banking, recounted his exasperation in dealing with a servicer when discussing his wife’s student loans in a recent interview. After multiple calls to the company where he heard different answers to the same question, Bruce Adams (43 years of age) had finally had enough.”
I wrote this a while back; Republicans Attempt to Block State’s Student Bill of Rights
I had two student loans, one in 75 and another one in 80. Both were awarded under the BEOG program. Both were for 2 grand each at 2-3% interest. First payments started about a year after leaving college. My monthly bill was 30 bucks. That was a time when the prime was near 10% if I recall correctly. Now if the government could do that in an era of high inflation and interest rates, how can we all justify charging kids 7-8% when the prime is near zero? BTW, the last loan included a period of time when I traveled abroad for a year and did not make any payments. When I got home, I notified them and restarted paying it off with virtually no penalty. Try that today and see what happens.
Run,
Got it. Got it first on your more recent thread about student loan forgiveness. Thx.