Student loan | Group Buys Millions of <b>Student Loan</b> Debt—To Cancel It <b>...</b> - Colorlines |
- Group Buys Millions of <b>Student Loan</b> Debt—To Cancel It <b>...</b> - Colorlines
- Occupy group abolishes nearly $4 million in <b>student loan</b> debt — RT <b>...</b>
- Occupy Group Eliminates $3.8 Million In <b>Student Loan</b> Debt | The <b>...</b>
- Senate Once Again Blocks Bill To Allow Borrowers To Refinance <b>...</b>
- What Elizabeth Warren Got Right About <b>Student Loans</b> | The Daily <b>...</b>
| Group Buys Millions of <b>Student Loan</b> Debt—To Cancel It <b>...</b> - Colorlines Posted: 19 Sep 2014 08:37 AM PDT Imagine getting a letter in the mail one day, announcing that a portion of your student loans has been cancelled forever. If you don't toss that letter in the junk mail pile, you might find out it's true. That's what happened in Michigan this year to a 32-year-old mother of four and a 24-year-old dental student. On the third anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, one offshoot of the Zuccotti Park encampment is making good on its mission to buy debt—only to cancel it. A group of activists called Rolling Jubilee is going after student loans, which at more than $1 trillion now account for 10 percent of all US debt, second only to mortgages. Rolling Jubilee initially began by canceling nearly $15 million of personal debt from medical bills. This Wednesday, it moved on to $4 million of student loan debt incurred by more than 2,000 students of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges system. (As reported by the Huffington Post this week, federal regulators are suing Corinthian for allegedly swindling students and engaging in illegal debt collection practices.) Rolling Jubilee, according to The New Yorker, knows its approach isn't a sustainable solution to the debt crisis among young people. What they want is for "debtors [to] organize themselves into a group powerful enough to seek policy changes on their own, as unions did in the early twentieth century, and as civil-rights activists did in the nineteen-sixties." (h/t The New Yorker; NPR)  |
| Occupy group abolishes nearly $4 million in <b>student loan</b> debt — RT <b>...</b> Posted: 17 Sep 2014 11:54 AM PDT Published time: September 17, 2014 18:54  On the third anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, an offshoot group announced that it has erased $3.8 million worth of private student loan debt. The group, Strike Debt, said in a press release issued on Wednesday this week that its Rolling Jubilee initiative has purchased nearly $4 million in private student debt owed by former attendees of Everest College — an institution run by the massive for-profit education company Corinthian Colleges — in turn freeing those former students from a huge chunk of the burdensome loan bills. "Jubilant Greetings!" the group wrote to 2,700 former Everest students. "We are writing to you with good news: We just got rid of some of your Everest College debt!" "Everest College is committing widespread fraud," the letter continues. "It targets lower-income students and students of color, offers low quality education and — with the help of the federal government — buries students under a lifetime of crushing debt, all to profit the one percent. No one should be forced to mortgage their future for an education." "You no longer owe the balance of this particular debt. It is gone, a gift with no strings attached. You are no longer under any obligation to settle this account with the original creditor, the bill collector or anyone else." This week's announcement is only the latest from the non-profit organization to tout the results of a two-year-old initiative spawned from the Occupy movement that has previously erased more than $15 million in emergency room bills by purchasing debt from the companies tasked with collecting from debtors, then erasing it entirely using donated funds and never forcing the original debtor to pay them back. "We buy debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, we abolish it," Strike Debt explains Rolling Jubilee on the group's website. "We cannot buy specific individuals' debt — instead, we help liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will and collective refusal. All proceeds go directly to buying and canceling people's debt." "This isn't just a stunt or a spectacle," Rolling Jubilee member Astra Taylor told NBC News this week. "This isn't a long-term plan, either. The point is to touch people where they are, and try to create a political awareness out of that." Now in the heels of successful other campaigns waged in the three years since the Occupy movement took hold in Lower Manhattan and spread across the United States, Strike Debt says former students of Everest College are the latest to luck out through the Rolling Jubilee initiative, and with reason: in this week's statement, the group says that students at Everest were "conned" and that Everest and other Corinthian schools "are now being closed or sold off to other predatory companies, leaving students with no good options." "Despite Corinthian's dire financial straits, checkered past, and history of lying to and misleading vulnerable students, tens of thousands of people may still be liable for the loans they have incurred while playing by the rules and trying to get an education," one Strike Debt member told CNN. "Some debts are just, and others are unjust," another organizer, Thomas Gokey, told National Public Radio. "Providing affordable, publicly financed, world-class education is a moral debt we are failing to pay." In the US, student loan debt now totals roughly $1.2 trillion — surpassing the amount owed through credit card debt — with the average graduate owing $26,600, according to the Institute for College Access and Success. |
| Occupy Group Eliminates $3.8 Million In <b>Student Loan</b> Debt | The <b>...</b> Posted: 17 Sep 2014 05:21 AM PDT 4319773 Some of the people behind the long-fizzed 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests are now buying up certain student loan debt and extinguishing it. On Wednesday, to celebrate the third anniversary of the failed Occupy Wall Street movement, members of an Occupy offshoot called Strike Debt! announced that they have purchased $3.8 million in private student loan debt since January. The buyers of the debt have forgiven 100 percent of it, CNN reports. The $3.8 million in purchased student debt represents approximately 0.0000031 percent of the $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt currently owed in the United States. The people behind Strike Debt! spent just over $100,000 to buy the $3.8 million from unspecified debt collectors. None of the debt is student loans backed by the federal government because that is off limits to debt collectors (and, for that matter, debt forgivers). However, privately issued student loan debts can be bought and sold by third parties. The various debts purchased by Strike Debt! had been owed by former students at Everest College, which is owned by Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit college behemoth that was recently shut down by the Education Department over allegations of a host of predatory and shady practices. In July, Corinthian Colleges, announced that it would be closing its doors. (RELATED: Obama Administration Kills Corinthian Colleges) "Despite Corinthian's dire financial straits, checkered past and history of lying to and misleading vulnerable students, tens of thousands of people may still be liable for the loans they have incurred while playing by the rules and trying to get an education," an unidentified Strike Debt! member told CNN. Current and former students who have had a portion of their debt forgiven thanks to Strike Debt! are happy. Former Everest College student Levia Welch, 32, said Strike Debt! has helped her shed a debt worth $669. Though she still owes about $16,000 in loans, she said she grateful for the group's efforts to help her. (RELATED: NYC Arrest Records: Many Occupy Wall Street Protesters Live In Luxury) "Debt is the tie that binds the 99%, whether you are a student delinquent on your student loans or a parent struggling to pay healthcare bills," Strike Debt! member Ann Larson declared in a statement obtained by CNN. "Being forced into debt for basic social services is a systemic problem." (RELATED: Former Union Boss At Occupy Event: Our Goal Is To 'Overthrow The Capitalist System And Build Communism') Neither Strike Debt! nor another Occupy offshoot, The Debt Collective, do much in the way of explaining how they have raised $3.8 million for their "Rolling Jubilee debt cancellation initiative." The ultimate goal of Strike Debt! is to eliminate "personally debt-financed" education. In a study published in July, researchers at Stanford University discovered that people who describe themselves as "unattractive" are two times more likely to donate to the Occupy movement. (RELATED: SCIENCE: Ugly People Twice As Likely To Give To Occupy Movement) Follow Eric on Twitter and on Facebook, and send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com. |
| Senate Once Again Blocks Bill To Allow Borrowers To Refinance <b>...</b> Posted: 17 Sep 2014 07:23 AM PDT Consumerist is currently testing a new user experience. If you received an invitation to participate in the beta test, please sign-in below. Interested in participating? Learn more here. {* #userInformationForm *} {* traditionalSignIn_displayName *} {* traditionalSignIn_password *}{* traditionalSignIn_signInButton *} {* /userInformationForm *} {* #forgotPasswordForm *} {* traditionalSignIn_emailAddress *} {* /forgotPasswordForm *} If you are part of the beta test group, you will receive a link that will allow you to create a new password. If you are not part of the test group, you can learn more here.  |
| What Elizabeth Warren Got Right About <b>Student Loans</b> | The Daily <b>...</b> Posted: 19 Sep 2014 01:02 PM PDT 4323012 Serial class warrior and anger merchant Senator Elizabeth Warren recently proposed that colleges with high student loan default rates be required to repay part of those loans. Warren is actually on to something. It's certainly better than the Trojan horse she tried to sneak into law in June. The current student loan system is a mess. The risk is assigned to immature young adults and unsophisticated borrowers. It gives a green light to colleges to cash in and to lenders to indiscriminately loan out money. Possibly Warren is more thoughtful than she has led us to believe. Then again, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. A properly functioning finance system apportions responsibility to both lender and borrower. The student loan system fails to do that, which is at the heart of the problem. A system where borrowers can walk away from their debts with impunity would quickly collapse. Alternately, a system where borrowers can never discharge their debts would be highly damaging to the economy, leaving people mired in penury. Not only that, an unbalanced system incentivizes fraud. Where borrowers can easily escape, they have every incentive to lie about their income and forge documentation. Where lenders can always get paid, they have every incentive to lend to anyone and everyone, regardless of ability to pay as well as lure people into loans which feature hidden fees, escalating interest rates and other shady practices. A financial system that imposes risk on everyone is not only fair and productive for the economy, but is the best way to control fraud. Granted, the student loan system is a strange animal. By and large, student borrowers would never qualify for the substantial loans they need. Would you lend $100,000 to an 18-year-old? With no collateral, the lender is betting on the future career of the borrower. Any conditions for debt relief would have to be much more stringent than for other forms of finance. The current problem is that all the risk is borne by the borrowers and that never works. There is not only every incentive to lend to anyone and everyone, but there is every incentive for the colleges to admit anyone and everyone and charge a king's ransom. What does the higher education industry care? They cash in, graduate the students and move on. The second twist is the nature of the purchase. The value of education does not manifest itself for many years. And there is no guarantee the education will be valuable. Good luck paying back a $100,000 loan with an ethnic studies degree. And universities don't offer refunds. But, worst of all, colleges have become customer-focused in a very bad way, catering to the demands of immature teenagers. They lure prospective students with dorm rooms that are more like condos, extensive recreational facilities, grade inflation and easy majors. After all, the best way to attract and retain students is to respond to their immediate demands. Unfortunately, those immediate demands lead to enormous debt and useless degrees, but plenty of money for higher education. It's easy to adopt a "tough luck" attitude toward young people who make these foolish decisions. But the costs to society are significant. Student loans totaling over $1 trillion are depressing consumption and hampering the ability of millions to establish their independence, buy homes, save and invest. The result is the economy suffers and we all pay. Shared risk would incentivize colleges and lenders to more closely track students' progress. If colleges and lenders were on the hook for a percentage of a student's loan, you better believe the free ride would be over. Facing the prospect of future losses, what would schools and lenders do? For one thing, they would withhold loans from underperforming students. They would demand better, non-inflated grades, worthwhile majors and career plans. Students drifting along with a 2.0 in art history would soon be history themselves. |
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