January 2009 Archives
On Tuesday, Mike Connery at Future Majority linked to and quoted a post at Tapped that summarized the first ten pieces of legislation on which the Senate will vote. The topic of student debt was buried deep within the description of S.7:
S.7 -- Education Opportunity Act of 2009. "To expand educational opportunities for all Americans by increasing access to high-quality early childhood education and after school programs, advancing reform in elementary and secondary education, strengthening mathematics and science instruction, and ensuring that higher education is more affordable." An education omnibus bill that will no doubt be split up into separate pieces of legislation.
As 2009 arrives and legislative priorities fall into place behind the stimulus bill, a trailer for a documentary on student debt has come along that captures the struggles many recent college grads are facing in paying student loans while simultaneously weathering this rough economy. Default -- the title of the film -- explores the stories of borrowers whose lives have been turned upside down by skyrocketing interest rates and a poor economy. Here's the trailer:
A summary of the film at its website explains the problem.
In 2005 private student loans were exempted of ALL consumer protections. No matter when their loans were taken, many borrowers now find themselves in a paralyzing predicament of repaying two, three or multiple times the original amount borrowed, with no bankruptcy protection, no cap on fees and penalties and no recourse to the law. The consequences are dire, with stories of borrowers in financial and emotional ruin.
Beyond these personal accounts, DEFAULT will explain the differences between federal and private student loans, a subject often overlooked by colleges and high school counselors. It will also give detail on the rise of the private lending industry and of college debt.
While the media has focused on the disaster that sub-prime mortgages have turned out to be, only superficial attention has been given to financial giants which have been profiting by approving loans to low-income students with variable interest rates up to 25%.
The woman speaking near the end of the trailer about the pressure on our generation to step in for retiring Boomers in fields like law, medicine, and engineering is absolutely correct -- the price tag for not only the education for those careers, but for the loans students have to take out to finance that education, is harming us. In the last ten years, seniors with student loans saw their debt more than double from $9,250 to $19,200, a 108% increase (58% after factoring in inflation). Keeping in mind that tuition has increased at public colleges and universities from 2001 to 2006 by 40% after inflation, many students may not even be able to get to their careers in one piece.
While we need to remember that not every Millennial is a college graduate or student, this is an excellent example of an issue that directly impacts us. While the issue would probably be best dealt with by a younger Congress (not the oldest one ever), we have no choice but to work with what we have. We should be pushing our representatives and senators to do something about this issue, letting them know we're not going to forget about it.
With skyrocketing interest rates and disappearing consumer protections in the student loan industry facing us, it's up to us to repair the problem. Contact your representative and/or senator now.
Levine professes his faith in political parties and rebuts Farrell's criticism of scholars for "not finding much use for" parties, pointing out that the majority of civic engagement scholars want to keep the party system, believing it to be a plus for efforts to increase engagement.
I tend to agree with Levine here. In some research for my senior thesis on political parties at Allegheny, I found that the increased partisanship in 2004 did increase the level of political engagement as far as attending political meetings/rallies, wearing political stickers/buttons, and voting goes. While the incoming Millennial Generation tends to be more pragmatic in its problem-solving methods, it's also more collaborative, more technology-driven, and more economy-minded than other than the Boomers and Gen Xers. By nature, the Millennial Generation wants to be involved, and so, no matter what, I'd argue that there's going to be some increase in the level of interaction, given this generation's size and demographic influence.
In 2003, CIRCLE published a working paper by Dan Shea of Allegheny College titled, "Throwing a Better Party: Local Mobilizing Institutions and the Youth Vote." The findings were clear: local parties were turning cold shoulders to youth.
First, we attempted to measure the extent to which young voters are on the minds of local party leaders--are they on their "radar," so to speak? Near the beginning of the survey we asked an open-ended question: "Are there demographic groups of voters that are currently important to the longterm success of your local party." "Young voters" (defined as 18 to 25 years of age) were mentioned by just 8 percent of party leaders. Senior citizens were mentioned nearly three times as often, even though the question addresses the "long-term
success of the party."
Emphasis added. Since 2003, the DNC has undertaken the 50 State Strategy, which has ensured Democratic presence in every community possible -- no matter its voting history. While it didn't make operatives favoring candidate-centered campaigns happy, it did provide the equipment for a candidate like Obama to use. With the use of technology and funding galore, whether it was through the well-funded DCCC and DSCC or Obama's own operation, the party adapted and began appealing to as many people as possible -- including young people. While there is still room for improvement, including opportunities for more representation of youth within the party itself, the Democrats have crafted a party about which the behemoth Millennial Generation can feel at least somewhat excited. While the Republicans are possibly no further now than they were in 2003, it's clear that the RNC and the McCain campaign had little regard for youth voters, ceding most of that territory to Democrats.
What I make of all this is that the majority of coming-of-age American voters are seeing the Democratic Party as the most representative of their views and lifestyles, and so their penchant for partisanship is increasing, leading to simultaneously increased civic engagement. Certainly Obama has added a "coolness" factor, but Millennials' traits have already led to an increased participation in the world around them.
