Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Some thoughts on student loans and irresponsible decisions

English: Day 3 of the protest Occupy Wall Stre...
English: Day 3 of the protest Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have long taken the  position that education ought to be a civil right.
http://www.populist.com/08.17.castagnera.html

And I have applauded Obama in this space for taking the issue of student loan debt by the horns and trying to help.

However, in listening to NPR this morning, I was astounded by the story of a young woman on whom the reporter focused.  She is a teacher in a Catholic School, who said she owes $160,000 and pays $1000 a month out of what must be a very modest paycheck.

What was this woman thinking?  What were her parents thinking?  $160,000 in loans to become a Catholic school teacher!  Are you kidding me?

And who was advising this young woman when she was a student?  Was it not irresponsible for the financial aid folks at her college to allow her to incur this kind of debt for that kind of career?

Bottom line: some somebodies were behaving irresponsibly in her case.  That the NPR reporter didn't consider this angle to the story frankly surprises me.
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