By: Linda Featheringill
In the academic year of 2000-2001, tuition and fees at Gordon College amounted to $16,420. In 2015-2016, that figure was $35, 386, an increase of 116%. While college tuition is climbing, the median income in the US has fallen to 7% since 2000. Meanwhile, the cost of tuition and fees at public institutions have risen 80% during the same time period. [1]
This is bad news indeed–but there is a solution. We can do for ourselves what we did for the big Wall Street Banks a few years ago.
During the time of the economic crash of 2007-2008, the entire world was struggling. In 2009, the US government bailed out Wall Street banks with TARP loans and quantitative easing [QE]. QE means that the government, through the Federal Reserve, purchased loans that were uncollectable because the borrowers were in financial distress. The Federal Reserve did this repeatedly, until the Wall Street banks stabilized. The TARP program involved plain money loans, and these were paid back over time. The debts taken over in the QE process were never paid back. The government essentially wrote them off. For more information, you can visit their official website. [2]
The Green Party, with candidates Jill Stein, M.D. and Ajamu Baraka, Ph.D., wants to do the same thing but with student debt. They propose that the government, probably working through the Federal Reserve, would buy the student loans from the holding entities, and then just forgive the loans. Or in the least, create more debt solution centers so that any local student looking for debt help could contact this company for debt help.
The effect on the individual debtor would be immediate. He or she would have a better credit rating because of less debt and would have funds to actually buy things. The effects on the overall economy would take a little longer to present themselves but still would be inevitable. More people would be buying things, thus increasing overall demand. This would force more production, creating more jobs. And the folks with the new jobs would also be buying things. The decision would boost to the entire economy.
We could do this only if we put the right people in office, though. There is just one political party that has a plan to address the student loan debt problem: the Green Party.
Vote for your own prosperity. Vote Green!
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