The economy is very much like Britney Spears: train-wreck after train-wreck. For fear that we will fall into a recession, the federal government has issued tax-rate cuts and literally bailed a company out of bankruptcy.
But we're still in a recession, and it's going to hurt us, degree-seeking students, the worst.
I say this because right now, as you sit in class reading The State Press, our federal representatives are failing to create any sort of tangible program that will solve the ever-growing problem the student loan industry is facing.
Right now, various banks have literally shut down their student-loan departments because of the turmoil that the industry is in. According to The Associated Press, 46 student lenders have stopped making federally guaranteed student loans. These companies include Washington Mutual Inc. and HSBC Bank USA. Banks like these once offered students the chance to go to college with low-interest loans that they usually didn't have to pay off until six months after they graduated. This was ample time for students to get on their feet and put their college degrees to work.
But students don't have these options anymore.
And if that isn't enough, the nation's largest student-loan lender, Sallie Mae, has decided to cut the types of student loans offered, and charge students an additional fee for the few loans they can get through the company. Further, found in another Associated Press article, SLM Corp., the company that technically owns Sallie Mae, has decided to do away with offering consolidated loans to graduate students, citing that it has becoming "unprofitable." People, like my sister, benefitted from this sort of consolidation program. The best option was to consolidate many small loans into one large one, at a low interest rate.
Sallie Mae no longer offers this option. And it's only going to hurt students.
On top of all this we have the nation's largest lender getting rid of many of their options and charging students extra for the ones they do have.
That's bad news for the estimated 6 million students who benefit from students loans annually. I am one of them ... or at least I was.
And no one seems to be listening, except for one guy — his name is John McCain, and he wants to be president.
On Tuesday, he stated that no truly good tax reform is going to come out of the current Congress. He went on to say that we, the students, should not be denied an education because of other careless mistakes made by others.
I happen to agree. But I also think that he is one of the people making a careless mistake with my future, because while he was giving this speech in Pittsburgh, he again missed a day in the Senate, where he actually holds a position as an elected official (though I doubt he remembers that or the fact that he's supposed to actually do his job with his old age and all).
So, to sum up the crap-hole we are in: student loan companies have gone under, fewer banks will offer loans in general (much less to students) and then there's that entire piss-poor job market. Meanwhile, the only person batting for us on Capitol Hill is too busy running for president to actually do anything to help us.
Personally, I'm glad I went straight to college and didn't take a year off like I considered. And I'm also glad that Britney Spears is on the road to recovery — maybe when she's back, our economy will be, too.
Ray Ceo, Jr. writes these columns to afford his college education. Make checks payable to
raymond.ceo@asu.edu.