Student Loan Reform Rides On The Back of Healthcare Reform

No doubt, healthcare reform is a huge deal. Mr. Obama has succeeded where other great presidents failed, and he should be commended for getting healthcare reform passed. I, for one, am pleased about reform, as I've been without health insurance for almost 2 years now.

But healthcare reform wasn't the only "big deal" change enacted. Alongside -- or perhaps on the back of -- healthcare reform was passage of the Education Reconciliation Act, which essentially cuts banks out of the federal student loan picture. This change will remove predatory lending from the student loan industry, and will concurrently save taxpayers many billions of dollars.

When I was in trouble with my student loans, I consolidated with the government-run William D Ford consolidation program. They treated me very fairly. After a year of steady payments they removed all negative marks from my credit profile, and I was able to opt for an income contingent payment plan, which made my monthly payments affordable.

A great feature of the Education Reconciliation Act is student borrowers will be able to opt for something similar: an Income Based Repayment program.

Another huge benefit: loan forgiveness. Those who opt for the Income Based Repayment program will have their loan balance forgiven after twenty years. For nurses, teachers and military folk, forgiveness happens after just ten years.

Here's a clip from the White House blog:

"...Today, the President signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which will end wasteful government subsidies to private student lenders and invest the savings in making college more affordable. Over the last few months, the Middle Class Task Force has traveled the country extolling the benefits of this policy, which is a cornerstone of the President’s domestic agenda.

Right now, the government spends billions of dollars a year subsidizing financial institutions that make guaranteed federal student loans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the legislation signed by the President today will generate nearly $68 billion in savings over the next 11 years by finally putting an end to these subsidies.

We are pleased to report that part of the savings will be used to expand the Income Based Repayment program for federal student loans. This expansion was one of the key Middle Class Task Force policy recommendations in the FY 11 Budget and the President signed it into law just two months after we first proposed it. Borrowers who choose the Income Based Repayment program will have their monthly payments capped at 10 percent of the income they have left over after covering basic needs, and any remaining debt will be forgiven after 20 years. Public service workers – like teachers, nurses and members of our armed forces – will have their remaining debt forgiven after 10 years.

These changes will not be implemented immediately, but they still represent as major step forward for borrowers with unmanageable debt burdens. In the meantime, borrowers will continue to benefit from the existing structure of the Income Based Repayment program, which was launched last summer. You can learn more about the program here.

This expansion is just one of several critical investments provided for in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act. We will also invest more than $40 billion to ensure that all eligible students receive Pell Grants and that these awards keep up with college costs. The legislation provides new funding for community colleges to develop online courses, build partnerships with local employers, and take other steps to help students get the skills and credentials they need to succeed. And the legislation provides additional support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions.

We will make all these investments while actually reducing the deficit. It’s a win for taxpayers and it is another important victory for America’s middle class families..."

--> CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE STUDENT LOAN POLL <--

No Reward for Prodigal Sons and Daughters

When I defaulted on my student loans back in the mid-90's, I was given the opportunity to make things right. William D. Ford agreed to purchase my student loan debt, and promised that if I didn't miss a payment for a year, they would remove all related derogatory items from my credit reports. I paid on time for a year, and they kept their promise. Having those negative items expunged from my reports was a huge deal for me, because my defaulted debt was holding me back financially.

Today, students who made similar mistakes with their student loan debt and who are now looking to rehabilitate their loans are hitting a brick wall. These students aren't able to get the negative marks on their credit reports removed because the current credit crisis has caused the market for student loan debt to dry up. Details of this issue can be found in this NextStudent.com press release. Here's a clip:

"...Before a defaulted borrower's student loan can be considered fully rehabilitated and the borrower's credit and loan status returned to good standing, the guarantor must resell the borrower's college loan to a new lender. But in the current credit freeze, no lenders are buying.

In November, the sole commercial bank still buying rehabilitated student loans announced it would no longer do so. Although a few non-bank entities may still purchase some of these college loans, 19 of the nation's 35 guarantors currently have no buyers for their student loans.

Each month, the Chronicle reports, $150 million in student loan debt is being added to the growing backlog of student loans awaiting rehabilitation.

Consumer advocates and guarantors are concerned that if something isn't done soon to help move these student loans out of default and restore borrower credit, borrowers may get tired of remaining in default and stop making payments on their student loans altogether -- which would lead to even more, snowballing defaults..."

But help is on the way. The Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) program is now greasing the wheels of the credit markets by providing the funds necessary to revive the market for all kinds of debt, including student loan debt.

My prayer for the TALF: Godspeed.

--> CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE STUDENT LOAN POLL <--

Can You Get Student Loans Discharged When You File for Bankruptcy?

It makes sense that many individuals who find themselves filing for bankruptcy also have defaulted student loans. In our current economic climate, you may be hard pressed to find a college educated twenty or thirty-something who isn't experiencing woes with student loan debt. Government statistics released in September of 2008 report only to FY 2006, when default rates were low, at 5.2 percent. However, when recession hits, student loan default rates go up. Right before the U.S. recession of the early 1990s (which had been looming since Black Monday of 1987) student loan default rates reached a historic high of 22.4% in 1989.

I think it's safe to say that default rates are on the rise again.

So, many borrowers who are considering filing for bankruptcy have defaulted student loans as well. The problem, however, is that generally student loans aren't dischargeable via bankruptcy. In fact, there is very little consumer protection involved with student loan debt in any respect. Such borrower vulnerability is the inspiration for a gripping new film, Default: the Student Loan Documentary. The trailer for this documentary sheds a lot of light on how student loans are some of the most dangerous financial products of our time:



The current recession is sure to cause many other borrowers to default on their student loans, and this may come as they are already considering filing for bankruptcy. The lack of basic consumer protections like the right to refinance, Fair Debt and Collection practices, adherence to usury laws, Truth in Lending requirements, and statutes of limitations build a financial trap that many college graduates cannot escape in a poor job market. Because so many borrowers are uninformed about their financial rights and responsibilities when they acquire these loans, the lack of bankruptcy protection can come as a shocker when it comes time to file. Most people filing for bankruptcy cannot get their student loans discharged.

However, there is a small group who can...technically. If you find yourself experiencing such a great hardship, as in the case of a crippling disability, that you feel you cannot pay back your student loans you can indeed file a separate motion for the discharge of that debt.

But how often does that happen?

How Hard Is It To Get Your Student Loans
Discharged Because of a Disability?

Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult, even in an exceptional case, to get your student loans discharged.



The truth is that most borrowers will never actually be so financially burdened that they can prove that they would never be able to pay back their student loans. AllExperts.com adds,

"...Court decisions that find undue hardship for the debtor have been extremely rare in the reported case decisions. A review of the reported court decisions in this area will disclose that most undue hardship discharges that have been granted typically go to individuals that suffer from some type of very severe permanent and total disability or some sort of permanent disability that drastically restricts the ability of the debtor to more than a subsistence level of income. The courts require a finding that the debtor has proven each of the following three elements:

1. That the debtor cannot maintain, based upon current income and expenses, a “minimal” standard of living for himself and his dependents if compelled to repay the student loans; and
   
   
2. That additional circumstances exist indicating that this state of affairs is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period of the student loans; and
   
   
3. That the debtor has made good faith efforts to repay the student loans..."

Furthermore, if they indeed did meet such qualifications, retaining legal counsel would probably be just as burdensome, preventing them from taking legal action at all. Therefore, in all practicality, it is nearly impossible to get your student loans discharged when you file for bankruptcy. If you do file for bankruptcy, you will still have to find a way to pay your student loan debt. It will only continue to compound if you ignore it; you simply have to pay it back.

So, I guess that there are three guarantees in life - death, taxes, and student loan debt.

--> CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE STUDENT LOAN POLL <--

EDITORIAL: Just Because College Is Expensive, It Doesn’t Mean That You Shouldn’t Have To Pay For It.

As I was listening to The Rush Limbaugh Show yesterday, I heard a sound byte of Senator Obama and a young college student who was a little disgruntled about the cost of her education. Obama agreed that what she was experiencing wasn’t fair, and of course, went on to give his typical encouragement blurb about change, hope, or what have you. Limbaugh came back to rant about how Obama doesn’t think that people should have to pay for higher education because he is a socialist. Thoughts of my own mountain of student loan debt soon drowned out the radio, and I found myself sincerely contemplating the issue.

Was Obama right? How much should I have to pay for higher education?

Just to be sure Rush’s argument wasn’t unfairly slanted, I checked Obama’s position on his website, www.barackobama.com. His official stance on higher education costs read as follows:

...Obama and Biden will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service...

Low to middle income families would surely welcome such policies, and for good reason. According to the U.S. Census bureau, the cost of postsecondary education has more than doubled since 1990. Faced with today’s gloomy economic climate and grim future, parents and students are crying for relief. Obama promises to educate high school graduates for 1/3 of the cost of tuition.

But is that his job?

While the tax credit sounds great to those who qualify for it, it should worry Americans who do not, because they will be the ones paying the bill. With Obama appeasing the American middle class by promising to increase the tax burdens only on Americans making more than $250,000 a year, this wealth redistribution system essentially boils down to the “rich” and the government taking care of the “poor”.

Is that really fair?

Others argue that the cost of a student’s college education should only be negotiated by two parties - the college and the student. This could be viewed as a free-market approach to education. While some insist that private institutions not backed by the government only serve the rich, the opposite is true. Harvard University has plans to increase student aid this year in a grand effort to subsidize tuition so that more deserving students can afford to attend. This is a good example of a private institution compromising with students to accommodate the changing economic climate.

Whether you like Obama’s plan or not, the truth is that the U.S. government already offers generous student loan programs that empower millions of Americans to pursue higher education while contributing to the American economy. While we hate to pay back the student loans that seem to multiply exponentially as soon as you sign on the dotted line, we enjoy the professional positions that we are able to pursue as a result of our advanced education. Furthermore, the interest goes to help fund the government that provided the initial loan. This allows students to pay their own way through college without having to offer collateral or pay out-of-pocket. Is that not more than fair?

Just because college is expensive, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

My parents knew that they would not be able to afford to pay all of our college tuition, so they told us to study hard and apply for as many scholarships as we could. They took out loans to cover some of the difference, and so did we. That’s life. Otherwise, we would have either had to put off going to college until we could acquire the necessary savings and credit or pursue other options. This approach to funding higher education wasn’t pleasant, but it was most certainly fair. It’s fair because the return on the investment has the potential to be exponentially higher than the investment itself. If I owe $100,000 in student loans but I make $150,000 per year, the investment pays off substantially. Unfortunately, since great jobs are not guaranteed, college education is a risky investment. That doesn’t mean, however, that if you come up short that it wasn’t fair because the cost of the education was too high. You might then be able to requisition the government to bail you out because you lost money pursuing gain that did not pan out for you.

Wow; that sounds eerily familiar…

--> CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE STUDENT LOAN POLL <--

Losing Track Of Student Loans Can Wreak Havoc On Your Personal Finances

While having a big family is a wonderful blessing in and of itself, it’s especially rewarding during tax season. Don’t get me wrong; I value my family infinitely more than a tax refund, but it feels good to know that my commitment to my marriage and children is recognized by our government when tax time rolls around. We had twins last year, so when my husband and I realized that we would get a Child Tax Credit for both of them, we thought that was pretty nice. After deductions, we expected a return in the thousands, so we were happy campers.

During that same time, however, we were dealing with a frustrating issue that did not put smiles on our faces at all. Somehow, when I consolidated my federal student loans, one of them was not included. I didn’t understand how it could have happened, considering how informed the consolidation company was. Loan consolidators do all of the hard work for you - they call you out of the blue, offering to make your life easier by combining your student loans with a great interest rate and anything else you need, including forbearances. As they are explaining everything to you at the speed of light, they list all of your outstanding loans and help you to understand why making one easy monthly payment would ease your anxieties about student loan debt. They’re right; it does. So, I agreed with them and consolidated my loans. They reviewed the information with me again, reading back the information on each smaller loan that would be merged together into the big loan. So, I thought everything was taken care of.

And then we found the one that got away.

Actually, the one that got away found us; once the creditor discovered I had moved and gotten married, they politely called to let me know that I owed them money for a small student loan. It took a while to figure out what happened, but when we did, my heart sank. I was so young and I took out so many small loans while I was in school that I hadn’t been keeping track of them properly. So, when the consolidators did not have their facts and figures right, I should have been able to correct them, but I wasn‘t. I ended up with a defaulted loan because it went unpaid and unnoticed for quite some time. As many young Americans know, having a student loan in default is guaranteed to bring a lot of unwanted phone calls, anxiety, and grief that we did not want. One artist was so encumbered by Sallie Mae that he wrote a song about it:



So, we did everything we had to do to bring that loan back to current status, although it didn't happen until around the time we filed our taxes for the year. Thinking that everything was settled, we filed and waited, only to learn that the creditor had not reported the updated status of the loan, so our entire federal refund would be garnished to settle the debt.

Needless to say, that knocked the wind out of my sail.

Lots of people depend on their federal tax returns each year to cover large expenses or to revive their personal finances. However, outstanding student loans, if they are not current or at least in forbearance, can cause your federal income tax refund to be garnished. Although what we lost was actually enough to pay off the debt and would release us from it, we couldn‘t help but feel blindsided. Our tax preparer told us that we could have appealed the situation, considering that the return was garnished unnecessarily. We decided to just let it go. Although we mourned the loss of our beloved tax return, debt freedom, much like family, is simply too great a commitment to take lightly.

--> CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE STUDENT LOAN POLL <--

StudentLoanJustice.org

Was reading the New York Times on Sunday and came across an article about the StudentLoanJustice.org website. It's a web space you must visit at least once if you or a member of your family has student loans. Site is chock full of content that's both shocking and engaging. This site is not just a place to read up on the injustice that exists in the American student loan industry, it's also the official website of the StudentLoanJustice.org Political Action Committee (PAC).

Here's a clip from the site's "about" page:

"StudentLoanJustice.Org is a grassroots organization started in March, 2005. The purpose of StudentLoanJustice.Org is to give borrowers who's lives have been adversely affected by the predatory, uncompetitive laws that have been passed by Congress since the 1990's a place to tell their stories, to conduct research about higher education legislation, higher education lenders, the effect these have had on the lives of citizens, and to cause a solution to be legislated. Without advertising, revenue, or staff, StudentLoanJustice.Org has grown to thousands of members across the country comprising every state in the Union..."

When I defaulted on my student loans, it was because I didn't want to make the payments. I was trying to get ahead in life. I didn't think the government could or would take every penny I had in my bank account. But that's exactly what happened; I learned a hard lesson.

The U.S. economy is languishing right now, and I'm certain that a consequence of the economic downturn will be lots of Americans defaulting on their student loans in the months ahead. Many will have legitimate reasons for defaulting, like an unexpected illness or unemployment. And here is a very ugly truth I learn at the StudentLoanJustice.Org site: Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord made more than $230 million in compensation since the late 90's, and a significant portion of that money came from the fees associated with borrowers defaulting on their student loans. Lord got so fat from student loans that he put in a bid to purchase the Washington Nationals baseball team.

Now, if a CEO grows a company's profits during his tenure at the top then, yes, he should get a generous bonus. If a company goes from grossing $3 billion per year to grossing $35 billion, then a bonus of $500 million is OK with me.

But banks that are in the business of making student loans are not like banks that make business loans, originate mortgages or issue credit cards.

If a borrower suddenly finds himself in financial dire straits and can't make payments on his/her student loans, that person can't get the debt discharged via bankruptcy, thanks to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 [1][2][3]. Default on your loans, and the fees will pile up (don't forget about the interest.) Those fees go to student loan specialists like Sallie Mae, and make CEO's like Mr. Lord very rich. To me, it's obscene that a CEO can get rich in this way.

There are some interesting articles and OpEd's here. There's a group in Facebook here. You can share your student loan horror story here.

Many Americans have shared their student loan horror story with StudentLoanJustice.org here. It's truly amazing how many defaulted due to hardship only to find that their student loan debt has doubled, tripled and even quadrupled due to interest and fees. No, it's not amazing, it's disgusting.

In a recent blog entry, I was second guessing my decision to use a significant chunk of my savings to payoff my student loans. After reading unnumbered horror stories at the StudentLoanJustice.org site, all my doubts have disappeared. Yep.

--> CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE STUDENT LOAN POLL <--