Paula Johanson - Student Loans and the Cost of College

1. 1.Funding Higher Education Is a Balancing Act
   Larry Gordon
2. 2.College for All and Cut Education Budgets Cant Coexist
   Randall Garton
3. 3.Should University Education Be Free?
   Tejvan Pettinger
4. 4. Is It Fair to Charge a Fee for Something That Was Once Free?
   Charles M. Gray, Sharon M. Oster, and Charles Weinberg
5. 5.When It Comes to Loan Repayment, Quality Matters
   Sandra Black, Amy Filipek, Jason Furman, Laura Giuliano,and Ayushi Narayan
6. 6.There Is a Student Debt Crisis
   Anne Johnson, Tobin Van Ostern, and Abraham White
7. 7.The Student Loan Crisis Isnt What You Think
   Claudio Sanchez
8. 8.Student Loans Are Marred by Corruption
   Naomi Spencer
9. 9.Is the US a Good Model for Higher Ed Financing?
   Robert Anderson
10. 10. How the US Government Could End theStudent Debt Crisis Today
    Ral Carrillo
11. 11.Should Community College Be Free?
    Eric Kelderman and Scott Carlson
12. 12.Free College Tuition Is a Bad Idea
    Bob Luebke
13. 13.Is College Worth the Expense?
    Andrew Gillen, Jeffrey Selingo, and Mandy Zatynski
14. 14.Student Loans for People with DisabilitiesAre a Good Investment
    Sarah Trick

Published in 2018 by Greenhaven Publishing, LLC 353 3rd Avenue, Suite 255, New York, NY 10010

First Edition

Copyright 2018 by Greenhaven Publishing, LLC First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.

Articles in Greenhaven Publishing anthologies are often edited for length to meet page requirements. In addition, original titles of these works are changed to clearly present the main thesis and to explicitly indicate the authors opinion. Every effort is made to ensure that Greenhaven Publishing accurately reflects the original intent of the authors. Every effort has been made to trace the owners of the copyrighted material.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Johanson, Paula, editor.

Title: Student loans and the cost of college / edited by Paula Johanson.

Description: New York : Greenhaven Publishing, 2018. I Series: Issues that concern you I Includes bibliographical references and index. I Audience: Grades 9-12.

Identifiers: LCCN ISBN 9781534502215 (library bound) I ISBN 9781534502826 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Student loans--United States--Juvenile literature. I Student loans--Gov-ernment policy--United States--Juvenile literature. I College costs--United States--Juve-nile literature. I Student aid--United States--Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC LB2340.2 S846 2018 I DDC 371.2/240973--dc23

Manufactured in the United States of America

Website: http://greenhavenpublishing.com

1.Funding Higher Education Is a Balancing Act
Larry Gordon

2.College for All and Cut Education BudgetsCant Coexist
Randall Garton

3.Should University Education Be Free?
Tejvan Pettinger

4. Is It Fair to Charge a Fee for Something ThatWas Once Free?
Charles M. Gray, Sharon M. Oster, and Charles Weinberg

5.When It Comes to Loan Repayment,Quality Matters
Sandra Black, Amy Filipek, Jason Furman, Laura Giuliano,and Ayushi Narayan

6.There Is a Student Debt Crisis
Anne Johnson, Tobin Van Ostern, and Abraham White

7.The Student Loan Crisis Isnt What You Think
Claudio Sanchez

8.Student Loans Are Marred by Corruption
Naomi Spencer

9.Is the US a Good Model for Higher Ed Financing?
Robert Anderson

10. How the US Government Could End theStudent Debt Crisis Today
Ral Carrillo

11.Should Community College Be Free?
Eric Kelderman and Scott Carlson

12.Free College Tuition Is a Bad Idea
Bob Luebke

13.Is College Worth the Expense?
Andrew Gillen, Jeffrey Selingo, and Mandy Zatynski

14.Student Loans for People with DisabilitiesAre a Good Investment
Sarah Trick

What You Should Know About Student Loans
What You Should Do About Student Loans

Y oung people are told that education is the way to get a good career. In the United States, many employers require applicants to have earned college degrees. But a post-secondary education can be very expensive.

The overwhelming expense in regard to college education is tuition fees. While most or all of the cost of operating a school of higher learning is borne by financial supporters of the school (and by the government if it is a public institution), a portion of the cost is paid in fees charged to students. The tuition fees students pay cover 10% to 20% of the cost of operating a school.

Why charge tuition fees at all? Its a choice. Until recently, Britain (like many European Union countries) gave maintenance grants to post-secondary students to cover tuition fees. The former education minister responsible for changing those grants to loans regrets the move and has spoken out in favor of scrapping tuition fees entirely. In the United States, the states of Tennessee and Oregon, as well as the city of San Francisco, have made community colleges tuition-free for all their residents. Income is not a factor. As of 2017, New York State has made four-year public colleges tuition-free for residents with a family income under $100,000 per year, rising by 2019 to $125,000.

Universities provide publicnot privategoods, Christopher Newfield pointed out in the Guardian. If the social benefits outweigh the financial, its only fair we charge students accordingly. Free university is affordable, and the benefits to the whole society are far greater than the cost. Communities are strengthened when everyone is taught to read and write; the same is true when students are trained as nurses, or plumbers, or teachers. The benefit to society from the work people do, and the taxes they pay, far exceeds the costs of operating colleges or supporting students. Newfield spoke for the belief that its a mistake when a government mistreats a public good as a private good, applies market rules where they dont belong, and makes higher education more expensive and unequal while lowering its social value. When governments issue loans instead of grants to students, the subsidy is going to the loan collection agencies instead of students.

Around 2010, just under half of American post-secondary students took out a student loan. These days, close to 60 percent of students take out a student loan in order to afford tuition, books, and living expenses. As M. Gleeson noted in a 2016 masters essay for Johns Hopkins University, The rise in student loans of the past decade is staggering. From 2004 to 2012, the pool of student loan borrowers grew 69 percent, from 23 million borrowers to 39 million borrowers. At the same time the amount that the average borrower had in loans skyrocketed by 70 percent, from $15,000 to $25,000. Gleeson goes on to add, The amount of debt that is being accumulated is considerably larger than amounts incurred by past cohorts, and the effect of this rising debt is affecting Americas younger student loan borrowers. A persons ability to save for retirement, or to become a homeowner, is severely limited while paying back student loans.