BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids More bad news...

I was watching the Nightly News tonight and there was a story about how the college loan industry is now being hit by the credit crunch. Apparently some states have halted the student loan programs altogether while other states are severely curtailing it.

While I enjoy the fact that this means that there will be less competition for me (yes I am a horrible person), it disturbs me that a larger and larger group of middle-class Americans are now unable to get a higher education even if they really want it. We already have a disproportionately high unskilled labor class.

So this is more bad news for parents. I wish people who wanted to be parents would think about long-term expenses like college tuition when they consider having a baby. If they really looked into it, they would find that they probably can't afford it.

This means more LOANS, which means more people in debt before they're even started. >;(

That's just fantastic. O_O They want people to have higher educations in order to get a good job yet we can't afford to go. This puts a bit of damper on my plans to go back to school later on -_-

I'm not as concerned about the middle class as I am about those who are in lower class not even coming close to have a chance to go to school.

This is going to start an interesting circle. People can't get a loan so they don't enrol. The colleges rely on numbers for funding, so their funding gets cut. When funding gets cut, programs get cut, so there are less places for students. If there are less places, people can't enrol anyway...

The only upside I can see is that it might force people to focus on why they want a higher education, rather than drifting into it, amassing a huge debt, and then graduating in 4 years with a degree they don't intend to use, and don't really have any interest in. I think college is the default for a lot of unfocused Gen Yers, and most of them have no concept of why they're there, apart from delaying real life for a while. Not true in all cases, but certainly in a lot.

The other thing I'd really like to see is the powers that be focusing on chanelling more people into professions where bodies are needed. We have too many lawyers and accountants? Make law and accounting expensive - and subsidise the hell out of med school, nursing and the trades to attract people into those areas. Some of the institutions are SO short sighted, it makes me boil...

See, Pikasam, that takes thought, foresight and a little bit of creative thinking!

Our governments are not very good at that it seems. Or even our colleges and universities for that matter.

<sarcasm on >
Oh... you want thought, logic, and reason from the uneducated and unthinking and unplanning masses? How daft!
<sarcasm off>

Ha! Yeah, that ain't gonna happen...could we get them sterilized instead?

At one time Pell Grants paid the money up front to people who qualified. The system was abused so badly that (I understand) that they now pay only after the semester is completed. Apparently there was a large number of students that got the funding and dropped out.

If this money is only given to people with low incomes, how are they to pay for enrollment on the front end?

I can see a real mess in the future with fewer citizens having degrees and a limited number of blue collar jobs.

If that happened, the human race WOULD die out in a generation.

This situation is temporary though. Right now, yes, the economy is suffering from the subprime mortgage mess and the credit crunch. But a few years down the line it will be back on its way to normal and getting a college loan will not be as much of a problem.

I do agree that you have to prepare for a bad economy, both as a parent and just as an adult.