#29 - College Loan Forgiveness - This Time and Space
Photo of the Week
Kona and I have been soaking in the gorgeous weather the past couple of weeks with extra long walks morning, noon, and night. Some mornings we get treated to a gorgeous sunrise like this one.
#29 - College Loan Forgiveness - This Time and This Space
A warning in advance. I am not known for brevity. This will not be short. I can claim the hat of education expert - and as such, I have a lot of thoughts on the College Loan Forgiveness Executive Order from the Biden Administration.
Also, to be clear, this is not meant to be political. Even though I identify as socially/personally liberal - I am also fiscally conservative and prefer smaller government. While generally I am in favor of the College Loan forgiveness, there are reasons why I still think it’s not the right thing. I added some headings and bold faced type to make this easier to skim through or if this isn’t your thing - just scroll to the Tips and Tricks section.
Before We Begin: An Education Innovator’s Take on Political Parties
One of the things as a pretty socially liberal person that has always been hard for me to reconcile as a professional college educator who is an innovator in that space is that my work life often got much easier when there was a Republican in the White House and/or a Republican controlled congress. At the Federal level, Republican’s typically push for less overall monitoring of public higher education institutions and often let rules flex/fall away and allow for far easier innovation than do Democrats.
Please note that this is almost the exact opposite situation when you look at party divisions for many states. State governments that are generally Republican led expect more and more from their K12 schools but do not provide adequate resources and they are largely not focused on improving learning efforts - instead focusing on accountability measures which often lead to more testing. Testing does not equal learning.
Why I disagree with Loan Forgiveness
This week, President Biden announced an executive order to forgive student loan debt. I both agree with this measure and I disagree with this measure. I thought I’d start with why I disagree with Loan Forgiveness. There are three primary reasons: 1) Why this debt and not other debt? 2) What about college costs? and 3) What about personal responsibility?
Disagreement: Why this debt and not other debt?
My first challenge with loan forgiveness is why this debt and not other debts like unavoidable medical expenses. As a self-employed person, I’ve realized the insanity around individual health insurance is even worse than I imagined it to be when I was on employer sponsored insurance. As a self-employed person, I carry medical insurance on my own but I’m left to navigate a complicated and complex system largely on my own. I consulted experts in the field when I chose my plan and I believe I’m well covered, but like many things in life, you don’t know what you don’t know until you find out through experience. And, in this instance, life can be a terribly crappy teacher.
The best evidence I could find as I wrote this says that twice as many Americans have health debt as they do college debt. Medical debt is shrouded in mystery because it is generally not reported on credit reports. When I went in for a series of annual blood tests - something my employer provided insurance always paid in full and I barely gave a second thought to, I learned that the series came with a price tag of $495. While my current insurance did pick up a large portion of it, I’m much more aware now. If you’re hospitalized for even a day or two and having something diagnosed, blood work alone can run into the thousands.
I’ve seen arguments that home debt should also be paid for and I’d agree with that if people bought homes that are sized according to need rather than want - or worse yet - bank approval. I remember getting the pre-approval from my bank when I purchased this house - I could borrow up to $650,000. WHAT?!!! My personally set budget was under $160,000 and I came in well under that. I do firmly believe we need to continue to look at predatory lending practices as well as home loan subsidy programs for individuals in marginalized communities and help improve housing options for everyone.
That said, I do believe that we need to have ongoing conversations about how we deal with health care costs in this country and keep people from going into debt because of medical needs.
Disagreement: What about college costs?
This is, without a doubt, my largest area of disagreement with the loan forgiveness and it comes on multiple fronts. It is also the same reason I have some level of disagreement with blanket increases to the amount of Pell Grant amounts (the grants given to those who have the highest level of financial need). And it’s that no one is actually holding college’s accountable for skyrocketing costs.
According to educationdata.org:
College tuition inflation averaged 4.63% annually from 2010 to 2020. The cost of tuition at public 4-year institutions increased 31.4% from 2010 to 2020. After adjusting for currency inflation, college tuition has increased 747.8% since 1963.
When you couple this with the fact that salary rates for those entering into the workforce have increased just about 20% over the same period of time, there is a burden the colleges and universities must take on here and deal with.
Technology, books, facilities, accreditation agencies and much, much, much more all go into the costs of education now. Additionally, ranks of education administration have ballooned while dollars going directly to the faculty and staff on the front lines supporting students have decreased. Many college place far more value on the aesthetics of their campuses than on the quality of their instruction.
Colleges and universities must be held accountable for rising costs. I would have liked President Biden’s Executive Order more if it had also at least mentioned that colleges and universities need to be held accountable.
One of the more complex aspects of the College Loan Forgiveness program is the “transfer” problem - and that could place this in either the agree or disagree camp regarding overall loan forgiveness. The higher education industry as a whole has a portability problem. Students are nomadic and the industry needs to align to that fact rather than continuing to argue over the value of credits. I’ve done battle with students to have their credits from a community college recognized by a four year institution, even when that four year institution is legislatively required to accept those credits simply because a Dean of a school decides the community college’s psychology class is not adequate for their psychology major. Veterans and returning adults who have vast amounts of work experience should be able to expect some college credit for their life and work experiences and yet colleges and universities all treat these things in their own individual way. So, for a student who has taken three versions of the same course at three different universities, the universities should bare that responsibility for not creating education that can be adequately transferred from one institution to the other. As a taxpayer, you don’t necessarily realize that through no fault of the student you are actually paying for the same education two or three or more times as students try to cobble together entire degrees from different institutions.
Disagreement: What about personal responsibility?
Everyone needs to ask why colleges and universities are permitted to continue to raise their rates at such staggering rates - and we almost must ask ourselves if the value at an educational institution charging $45,000/year for a nursing or teaching degree is really worth it when the same degree could be earned at a public university alone for an average of around $15,000/year and at a combination of a community college and public university for around $10,000/year. Is the “four year experience” really worth walking into a $45,000 starting salary with $100,000+ in debt already stacked against you?
I earned my doctorate at one of the institutions identified by the US Department of Education as one that used predatory practices for recruiting students and encouraging them to take on high levels of debt without appropriate expectations that the student could pay off that debt through gainful employment.
To this, I say that the Feds are kind of right and kind of wrong and they are also somewhat at fault - a layer of complexity I won’t go into here. I can also say this as an expert in the field of education who knows well the games institutions still play and what the pitfalls are to watch out for. That said, the most important part here is, I knew what my earnings potential was in my career and I had to decide whether or not taking on the debt I was considering was worthwhile. It was worthwhile and even though at my age I still have a little student loan debt, I have it because I simply never prioritized paying it off because my interest rate is ridiculously low - and I knew it would be going in because I was going through that program at a time when student loan interest rates were staggeringly low. I finished just as those same rates skyrocketed so I was able to lock in low rates.
I feel that I was able to make an educated decision to take on my debt and so I did that with appropriate accountability to also pay off that debt. I wish we lived in a society where everyone was armed with appropriate knowledge to make those decisions in a clear and easy way AND we could then expect that everyone would carry their own responsibility.
Why I agree with Public Service Loan Forgiveness
There are also at least three major reasons why I agree with the Biden Administration’s Executive Order. They are 1) Higher Education is Broken and Students Shouldn’t Have to Pay for that; 2) At least on the surface this appears to help more historically marginalized populations than it doesn’t; and 3) Debt Forgiveness is a good and right thing in any time and space - even when it’s not your time and space.
Agreement: Higher Education is Broken - that’s not the fault of students
When you go to college there is a power dynamic between institution and individual. Many people assume the college employee sitting across the desk from them was properly trained, is well versed in the policies and procedures of the institution, and is giving them accurate information to help them navigate the system. You as individual assume the institution - as represented by the person sitting in the chair or at the other end of the email - is right. As someone who has had to adjudicate many such situtations where wrong information was given - and sometimes given intentionally - I can tell you that is NOT the case.
Institutions are governed by sets of policies set by human beings with little oversight - and often even less accountability - for implementing those policies with fidelity. I could - if I could even recall them all at this point - tell you story after story after story of misinformation on the part of a faculty or staff member - often very well intention-ed - setting a student on a course that cost them time or money - and most often both. And, sometimes, the person wasn’t well intentioned but was acting as a rogue actor trying to prove a point in a system they felt wasn’t taking them seriously as a professional.
I’ll tell you a story from my own quite recent history. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education and I also hold 18 graduate hours in mathematics. This is, for most institutions of higher education, the minimum requirement needed to teach bachelor’s level mathematics. However, my 18 graduate hours in mathematics include 9 hours of methods courses (courses in how to teach mathematics - not in straight mathematics) and so I wasn’t “qualified” to teach college algebra - one of my favorite courses in the world to teach. My alma mater offers a certificate program that is essentially designed to help educators become credentialed to teach college level mathematics and my favorite professor from my undergrad teaches in that program so I thought - heck, I’ll just go get three more classes and then I’ll be credentialed.
I never got through the application stage to the University (recall - it’s the institution where I graduated from with my B.S. in Mathematics Education which was the ONLY official prerequisite for the program). In my application to the university, I entered all of my education. Because I’d entered all of my education on the university application, the admissions advisor and graduate program advisor said I had to submit official transcripts from every institution I listed. When I inquired why they needed them they said it was university policy to receive transcripts for all listed institutions on the application.
Why? Why should I take the time (to request transcripts from four different institutions takes about 10 minutes per institution by the time you google the process, submit the form, etc) and it costs - for these four institutions - $75. Why when I was an alumni in good standing who had met all actual academic requirements for admission should I have to submit irrelevant transcripts? I did what so many students do - I walked away. (Many higher education institutions should not wonder why they receive ample numbers of applications but do not have ample numbers of enrollees.)
Could I have picked up the phone and called a colleague at that institution in a high enough position of authority to have this taken care of? Of course I could have - this is, after all, my business. That said, it shouldn’t be this way for anyone. You don’t have professional educators sitting in your corner rooting you on and helping you navigate the complex, poorly structured systems of many higher education institutions so who could you call? More than once, I intervened in the educational challenges for my nieces and nephews by making those phone calls and undoing decisions that weren’t actually based in learning and didn’t actually follow institutional policy. I should have fought this one to make a point but instead I gave up.
Agreement: This appears to help marginalized populations
All Presidential administrations oversell the facts of their work and the Biden administration is no different. That said, this executive order does appear to benefit those who most need it.
Just like the COVID relief checks did not go to those in higher income brackets, this Executive Order is supposed to help, according to the White House, predominantly those earning less than $75,000 a year. That’s a good thing.
My friend Doneisha and I had breakfast the other day and she was telling me about a group she supports called the Women’s Equity Brunch - or We Brunch. The premise is simple - women get together and have brunch. What they pay to attend is based on statistical wage disparity for women and their own ethnicity. Here’s what that looked like (using 2018 dollars)
Asian women make $0.90 on the dollar compared to a white male
White women make $0.79 on the dollar compared to a white male
Black women make $0.62 on the dollar compared to a white male
Hispanic women make $0.55 on the dollar compared to a white male
These inequities - always measured in comparable jobs with comparable experience - are simply continued lack of human decency and respect to our fellow Americans. Growing wealth for those in poverty actually helps my ability to grow my own wealth - it doesn’t hurt it.
If the debt forgiveness plan for higher education truly provides some measure of relief and provides more financial freedom to those already struggling then I’m completely in favor.
Agreement: Debt Forgiveness is a Good and Right Thing in Any Time and Space
All major religions speak to helping the poor and forgiving debts. When I see people raging on social media that “why now - why not me?” the answer is - it wasn’t your time or your space. It didn’t happen before but it’s happening now. We are all a product of circumstance and environment and sometimes we want to lay blame to the time and space in which we find ourselves. I get it and I get that this also contributes in some way to our shared payment through taxes but I also believe that taxes are the sacrifice we make to live in a prosperous nation. Do I agree with all the taxes I pay? No. Of course not. That said, I want a nation that is well educated, technologically strong, and has outstanding infrastructure. It takes taxes to make that happen for everyone.
If you are overjoyed that you just found out that some amount of your debt will get wiped out, I am overjoyed with you even knowing I will never benefit from the same. There is another program - Public Service Loan Forgiveness - that I did EVERYTHING I should have to qualify for. Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible until the Biden administration to EVER get approved under this program and while they’ve made it much easier for public servants to get approved, I now can’t take advantage because I’m no longer employed at a public institution. I am disappointed the rules didn’t go in my favor but I would bend over backwards to help others navigate the process if they are eligible to get their loans forgiven and take joy in knowing they can have more money to devote to other aspects of their lives.
I get that this is political, but it’s also good and right. I’ll end this with a Biblical “chuckle” from my friend and retired Old Testament Bible Scholar Nancy Bowen who - I’ll paraphrase - pretty badly - in saying, “You can win both sides of nearly every argument with the Bible.” It’s a bad paraphrase but I think it matches the spirit. Case in point:
Deuteronomy 15:1 - Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts
Psalm 37:21 - The wicked borrow, and do not pay back
In Conclusion
It just took me hundreds of words to lay out - still quite poorly - my thoughts on this issue. Overall, I’m happy for who this executive order helps. I would prefer it to have come from Congress in the form of an actual full revamp of the Higher Education Act with a lot of actual accountability for learning but that would be even more politically charged than this would have been. And, maybe as a demonstration that our legislators are going to turn a corner and actually try to work together effectively.
I welcome your discussion, as long as it’s cordial and professional if you wish to engage or you can certainly reply to me with your thoughts.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
$15 off of Meijer Delivery or Pick Up
Between now and September 3, you can get $15 off of a Meijer pick up or delivery order by using the code SHARE15 at checkout. No idea if others got this random email but I did and I thought I’d share the coupon.
Restore Old Family Photos - No Fancy Skills Required
I have a ton of old family photos that I want to digitize and work on restoring to a higher quality. Baseten does all the hard work for you and it’s completely free. I’ve tried it on about ten old images and it has done enough that I’m satisfied. Here is a sample from an old photo of my mom’s family. It really is all about the faces and you can see my mom’s face (bottom left corner) much more distinctly in the after shot.
Before
After
Try a different browser
The publishing tool I use - Substack - is ridiculously hard to edit in Google Chrome and yet, I kept struggling and struggling and struggling with it until I thought - try a different browser.
I opened this issue in Firefox to edit and it was nice and easy. So, if you’re having trouble with something in one web browser, try a different one. And, if you’re still having trouble, try a Private Browsing Session (some of the browsers call this Incognito Mode).
What I Published This Week
I continued writing both of my series - I’ll link to those index files below. Additionally, I added an article on how I manage my inbox. I’ve been having some ongoing microphone issues but I have two videos scheduled for this week so here’s hoping the tech gremlins in my mic are finally resolved.
Ship30 Series - Planning Personal Learning
I’m doing something a bit different with this cohort of Ship30for30 - I’m writing one long thematic series of articles on planning and implementing personal learning projects. Here is the index for that series on Medium and on Hive.
Lifebook Series
As a part of my annual goals, I’m also looking for some accountability partners to make sure I meet my goal to get my “life book” updated. Here is more about that - Medium and Hive. This week I added the Passwords and Digitizing Your Wallet. My friend Brian also suggested the “Find My Password” “game” that I think is an excellent option for anyone who may later be responsible for the digital records of a loved one so I’m grateful to Brian for letting me share his idea.
What I’m Reading This Week
I’m continuing to read and listen to content on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I’m nearly ready to write about what I’ve learned. I may set that as a target for October.
I started reading The White Allies Handbook by Lecia Michelle this week. Allyship is action oriented and this book is written to help those who want to be allies move from talk to action.
Diversion
I encountered two “stupid rules” on Sunday alone.
The baseball park near our home, that we’ve walked in when it was empty probably 30 times, apparently has a no pets policy that was called out to me by every volunteer I encountered as we made our way through the park trying to find the diamond my great nephew was playing on. We went home instead.
At Meijer, you can only use two coupons to purchase the same item in a single order. I had three coupons for Peanut Butter and could only buy two jars with my coupons.
This made me look up “stupid rules” on YouTube. If I lived in Maine, I would break the law every year because my tree is never down before the end of January. It sometimes has barely made it down by Easter.
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