Graduate Students May Face Higher Debt Under Obama's Budget Plan

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama promised that investment in education and getting the next generation of Americans ready to face their own "Sputnik" moment would be a focus of his administration. But at least one component of his FY 2012 budget, which will be released tomorrow, will likely pile more debt upon students who decide to pursue graduate school, potentially making the dream of higher education even more unattainable for many Americans. The move, say administration officials, is needed to ensure that a popular financial aid award stays available at current levels.

In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew said that interest on graduate school loans will begin building up while students are still in school. Currently, interest does not begin compiling until after students graduate.

snip...

Lew's assurance that students still won't have to start paying back their debt until after they graduate might not offer much comfort to people who emerge from graduate school and face, on average, more than $40,000 in debt, according to FinAid.org. Students pursuing a medical degree can face more than $100,000 in debt.

Obama himself has acknowledged the burden of heavy student debt, saying in his 2010 State of the Union speech, "In the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education. No one should go broke because they chose to go to college."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/13/graduate-students-higher-debt-obama-budget_n_822603.html

[woo me with science]

1. "Interest on graduate school loans will begin building up while students are still in school."

"People who emerge from graduate school and face, on average, more than $40,000 in debt, according to FinAid.org. Students pursuing a medical degree can face more than $100,000 in debt."


"May" face higher debt? "May"?

[roguevalley]

22. Just gets better every day doesn't it. Its like having reagan back.

[fasttense]

34. There is no May about the tax increase I just got.

Because my family makes less than $40,000 a year I got a tax increase. The tax break for the poor and middle class that came with the recovery package was allowed to expire. So, my taxes and everyone who makes less than $20,000 (for individual $40,000 for married couples) will go up. Thanks Congress, Thanks Obama!


But not to worry the billionaires got their continued tax give away (the one Obama promised to do away with).

If I just hang in there eventually a member of Corporate Aristocracy will piss out a minimum wage (They would pay me less if they could) no benefits job any time now.....waiting...

[Smashcut]

2. J.D. here, 170K in debt.

What a mistake. And they're making it WORSE?!

[boppers]

13. That's three years of income, depending on career path.

Assuming 30 or so years of income, that's 10%. The other 90% is gravy.

[Smashcut]

28. Yes, if you're employed.

In case you weren't aware, the unemployment problem is affecting new lawyers as much as anyone. Many of my fellow graduates are also unemployed; others are being ushered toward the door even at big firms. And I went to a top-tier school! I made a supposedly "safe" bet! Imagine graduates of the many second, third and even fourth-tier schools who, if they're lucky, will find jobs that don't require a law degree and the 150K of debt that went with it. No wonder there are tons of "law school scam" blogs proliferating right now. Look them up!

[MissDeeds]

19. That's a terrible debt

I remember when I started grad school, one of my professors had a poster in his office of very high end luxury cars. The caption below read "Justification for higher education". As a professor myself, I wonder how many bought into the notion that a graduate degree leads to wealth. Student loans are crippling our students, and leading more and more to a society in which only the wealthy can afford higher education.

[Smashcut]

29. I never expected great wealth, just a stable career.

Obviously, that professor's poster is absurd. But that example doesn't give enough credit to many people my age who went to grad school not to strike it rich, but because we were told that's what we needed to do to succeed. Education, education, education! Can't find a job after college? Get more education! It was common to hear things like "grad school is the new undergrad," especially if you lived in a big city where college degrees are pretty much a given for 99% of job seekers.

However, I obviously agree with your point about student loans. They are not only crippling students, they have put an entire generation (mine) into indentured servitude to banks, collection agencies and the federal government. If you'd like to know why home sales will never recover, think about the fact that people my age who would have been buying their first home twenty or thirty years ago cannot do so today because a lot of us already have a six-figure mortgage. The only difference is we have no house to show for it and there's no way to walk away from the debt. Not to mention the loans themselves end up destroying our credit and absorbing all discretionary income, so there goes our ability to stimulate the economy by borrowing and spending. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

As a professor, obviously higher education tuition is your bread and butter. But for many of us, it comes at too high a price.

[w4rma]

3. Obama is working hard to make the Republicans look good.

By trying to act like a Republican.

[boppers]

14. Republicans would cut the whole thing.

So, uhm, no.

[Democat]

25. Haven't you heard? Obama is worse than the worst Republican!

According to many on DU.

[boppers]

27. I hear he wants to put the whole budget into killing the poor.

He's evil.

:sarcasm:

[gtar100]

4. And the elephant in the room is the military budget.

Welcome to the republican vision for America.

[boppers]

15. It's getting cut, too... but not nearly enough.

The constitution has a standing navy, but no standing army.

We could save a bit of change there.

And by "a bit of change", I mean a third to a half of the budget (depending on what you're counting).

[Adsos Letter]

5. My daughter and son-in-law both graduated from Med school last year

they owe about $400,000 between them.

[boppers]

16. They should make that in a year.

My tolerance for med school graduates ranks up there with trust-fund babies complaining about taxes.

[xocet]

18. You should definitely mention this to your doctor the next time that you need medical care. n/t

[MissDeeds]

21. Yep

Especially if pain meds are needed.

[boppers]

24. pain meds are for junkies.

Of all the painful experiences I've heard of, I've been through the worst, without meds.

[MissDeeds]

36. Wrong

Tell that to some of our wounded vets, and my mom's eighty-five year old friend who had to have a foot amputated last week. Please don't be so callous.

[OhioChick]

40. Tell that to the soldier that just got his legs blown off n/t

[ChromeFoundry]

41. The human brain is what senses pain...

this is the component missing from your post.

[boppers]

23. 20 years and counting without them.

Turns out, you don't need a medical degree to handle the vast majority of health issues.

Broken bones? I don't need a doctor.
Lacerations requiring stitches? I don't need a doctor.
Collapsed lung? I don't need a doctor.
Infected insect bite? I don't need a doctor.

Of course, there *are* folks who need to overpay somebody to stitch their flesh, set a bone, or punch their pleural cavity, or diagnose an infection... I'm not one of them.

[_ed_]

38. 100% BS

This post is 100% BS. Prove it. I suppose you break into pharmacies to get drugs to treat infections.

[xocet]

47. It is not even BS! n/t

[boppers]

50. Last infection I got, I was in mexico.

Cheap pharma there, no "expert" needed.

Other than that, no, I haven't needed squat.

[displacedvermoter]

42. Do It Yourself Lobotomy?

Check!!!

[boppers]

51. Well, if you're using discredited medicine, you might need discredited remedies.

It helps to follow medical blogs and publications.

[_ed_]

37. Treat yourself

next time you get sick, then. Or put yourself through med school if it's so easy. Ignorant jerk.

[boppers]

52. I do treat myself.

It's not exactly complex.

Not sure how this makes me an "ignorant jerk", though.

[taught_me_patience]

44. Completely ignorant post

Ignorant to the amount that doctors actually make and insulting to hard working doctors.

[boppers]

53. Not all doctors make the same.

Cuban doctors make about the same as US teachers.

US doctors, OTOH, rarely have a bake sale to keep their doors open.

[brentspeak]

6. Obama is apparently shooting to be Goldman Sachs' or Chase's CEO after he leaves office

[OhioChick]

7. The more I hear, the more disgusted I become n/t

[glinda]

8. My poor little cousin is studying to become a Veterinarian. Yikes! She

will spend the rest of her life paying that back.

[ChromeFoundry]

9. Best way to kill a country's capacity to compete...

make education unfordable.

[Frank Booth]

10. This won't make a bit of difference to those whose parents pay for grad school.

And since they seem to be the only class of people Obama cares about, I can see why he's doing this.

[rayofreason]

11. The real villain is...

...the tuition bubble. Tuition has gone up much faster than inflation or income growth. That has to stop.

When I went to college at an excellent state school it cost $4500 to go to college - tuition, fees, books, living expenses, travel home for the holidays, the whole ball of wax! So over 4 years it would cost you a total of $18K - let's round it up to $20,000. But if you had a degree in a strong area (like, engineering), you could expect to make that much in your first year. And many other degrees were worth $15K/yr or so. In other words, your expected annual salary was not too far from what the four years cost.

Over the past 35 years or so, salaries have done better than inflation and people have a considerably higher standard of living, especially since the cost of so much has dropped so much, like anything electronic. But look at the cost of education for a student going to an state school. At UMich the cost of attendance is $25K/yr. At UCLA (in the dorms) it is $29K. At Berkeley it is $34K. Take any of those numbers and multiply by four and you get about 2-4 times what you can expect to earn in a year when you get out of college, depending on your major.

Where was the big cost increase? Tuition! What cost $1000 in the 70's now cost $11,000 at most places. And forget about private schools with $40k annual tuition bills. It is like driving a new Mustang convertible off of a cliff each September, four years in a row. So college has been rendered a much less productive investment. Grad school even more so, except in the sciences where grad school is free. Even there you still have to count the 5-6 years of lost income as part of the cost to get a Ph.D., and in the humanities there is no certainty of a return on your investment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XViCOAu6UC0

Brutal, but brutally funny.

[JCMach1]

20. Why? Budget cuts from states that support public institutions...

Public universities are now almost as expensive as private... mission accomplished. The Repugs should be so proud.

[rayofreason]

39. Wrong.

Reduction in state support for higher ed does not explain the rise in tuition cost because the increases in private institutions has been even higher.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CollegeTuitionsUsAverage1993to2004.png

And state school tuitions (in-state rates) are still MUCH lower than private schools. At the low end you find Florida schools like UF and UCF that charge $5K/yr (red state). At UT Austin, full-time tuition is about $9K/yr for a Texas resident (red state), even though UT Austin gets only 14% of its budget from the state, while at UMich, the tuition is around $11K (blue state). One of the most expensive state school tuitions is the $12K it costs to be a full-time student at Mass Amherst (blue state). Contrast that with the $30K-$50K that almost all private schools charge. State schools are a much better deal, and even better if you go to community college to get a lot of the core requirements out of the way (in the humanities, often taught by grad students or lecturers at universities) before you go to the more expensive university for the upper division courses (generally taught by professors).

This is an issue that is neither R nor D - the tuition increases faster than inflation have been going on for decades under all administrations in a variety of states with a range political culture and party control. In fact, blue state tuitions tend to be higher than red state tuitions, but that is missing the point. When you find a multidecadal institutional pattern it is obviously nonpartisan. It is an expression of a deeper structure within the institution and the interaction with the environment in which it operates.

Until that issue is identified and resolved, everything else is just pissing in the wind.

[Hissyspit]

12. Holy fuck.

What?

[matt819]

17. It just never ends, does it?

With college graduates competing for $12 an hour jobs and unable to pay obscene amounts of debt, this is only going to make things worse. Look, I don't know what the answer is, but this isn't it. One more effort to keep the serfs in their place.

And will you see students rise up here the way students in the UK protested recently, or the way Egyptians did in Cairo? Not a chance. Not a prayer. And even if they did, nothing will change. Nothing.

[boppers]

26. What skill set do they have?

Are mechanical engineers lost for jobs?

Or are the "degrees" in western literature difficult for finding employment?

Not all degrees are equal.

[The Philosopher]

31. Do you have a degree?

If so, what is it, if you don't mind me asking?

[boppers]

48. Nope. No degree.

I pull between $30-$300 an hour, depending on the gig.

In lieu of a degree, I spend 2-4 hours a day on self-education in my field, because a degree in computers is useless 3 years after it's awarded.

That being said, I have taken on Phd's in my field, and come to agreement, because, well, it's the kind of field where things change fast, and those with years of academic credentials know that their credentials age fast.

[The Philosopher]

54. Did you

ever attempt a degree?

[boppers]

55. Yeah, back in high school.

Turns out they wanted money for tuition, not demonstration of actual knowledge.

[davidpdx]

30. Shit

I just started my DBA last September. I still have loans from the bachelors and masters degrees.

[corpseratemedia]

32. interest building while in grad school? what a deterrant to "no one

should go broke because they chose to go to college"

I didn't vote for Reagan. There should be no budget cutting for struggling people, period, because ALL the debt is from the wars of choice, the tax cuts to the very wealthy, the bank malfeasance.

We desperately need a real Democratic primary challenger in '12 who has the will and guts and ethics to stand their ground and tell the truth about the budget.

[AzDar]

33. Again, I ask : Who IS this guy?

:wtf:

[Hubert Flottz]

35. The wealthy should be the only people whose offspring should be

entitled to a class A education. The Obama tax breaks for the wealthy trump everything else.

[taught_me_patience]

43. Shitting on people who are trying to better themselves

through higher education.... WTF!?!?!?

Priorities are completely fucked up for this administration.

[Javaman]

45. The price for sputnik just went up. nt

[bajamary]

46. Obama cares about only one group

This Obama budget proposal is yet another example of how supportive Obama is of the wealthy in America, most especially those whose vast wealth arises from the military-industrial corporations.
I say again, that I will not support Obama, nor volunteer for him, and certainly not vote for him in the Democratic Presidenti al Primary in 2012.

I am hoping that someone in the Democratic Party will oppose Obama in the Primaries, as I will certainly support, contribute , volunteer and, of course, vote for this person.

Obama has long since abandoned the Progressives in America.

It's way past time for we progressives to actively search for opposition candidates who actually have shown how progressive their policies are, such as Howard Dean.

[fishwax]

49. doesn't interest already start building up while students are in school?

There are subsidized loans (where the government pays the interest until graduation) and unsubsidized loans (where either the student pays the interest while still in school or else it builds up).