Quote:Its not so much the concept of the state school system, I think that's great and a true benefit to our society. Its the government financing of post-secondary education where it gets sticky. Frankly, if you give away community college like the President proposed then all you do is further deflate the value of a high school diploma. When everyone can get an Associates Degree for free then it simply becomes the new high school diploma. The same goes for the rest of the degrees, when too many people acquire the credential then the credential is naturally devalued, especially when so many who shouldn't be anywhere near college matriculate and graduate. Access to college is great, but everyone shouldn't got to college and cost is one of the ways to weed those folks out.

Are you meaning governement backed student loans or the government themselves loaning the money? I have about 12 years of student loans to repay yet, (and I'm 47 years old) and they are all backed by the government...If I don't pay them to the banks/financial companies who actually lent me the money for student loans, the IRS will take my tax refund every year and send it to the student loan lenders...There are other ways the government will recoup the money on defaulted student loans as well...

 

I think student loan debt is becoming one of the biggest financial messes in history...Some companies do not do public student loans anymore, but they will do private loans, due to the fact that private student loans are based on your credit worthiness and are not backed by the government, as most student loans are given to 98% (when I started getting mine) of people applying for them without even having a job or credit score...Straight out of High School and beginning college the following term, nearly everyone qualified for the pell grant (or a portion of it) and public student loans...

 

Not for profit schools make every effort to make it easier and more comfortable for students to gain higher education, yet their standards are the exact same as for profit schools...They are accredited by the same groups...

 

I'm not so sure that an Associates Degree is really worth much in todays market...A Bachelors helps, but where the real difference comes in, is in a Masters...Now trade schools that specialize in one thing such as ITT,  MIT, HVAC (Heating ventilation air conditioning), welding, Wyoming Tech et.al carry a lot of weight, but it's the same student loan program for those, unless the school has their own financing program...

---