It's a good idea to revitalize community colleges, to cut back, to modify the student loan program so it doesn't go through banks.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The whole student loan thing drives me completely nuts. If it wasn't possible for 18-year-olds to sign themselves up for tens of thousands of dollars in debt in order to pay their college bills, the state governments wouldn't have found it so politically easy to cut taxpayer support for public colleges and universities.
If lenders are forced to scale back student lending because private student loans are subject to bankruptcy discharge, many students will be denied access to higher education.
College gives people learning and also takes away future opportunities by loading the next generation down with debt.
I might say that in retrospect, looking at where the community college system is today, I think we may have gone too far. The community college system is so big, so broad, so consuming of tax money.
We need to align the incentives so that colleges have an incentive to keep down their costs... to graduate students on time with degrees in areas where they're going to be able to get jobs and going to be able to pay back those loans.
Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans.
Student loan debt is the reason I don't advise students who want to become entrepreneurs to apply to elite, expensive colleges. They can be as successful if they go to a relatively inexpensive public college.
Community colleges play an important role in helping people transition between careers by providing the retooling they need to take on a new career.
For-profit higher education is today a booming industry, feeding on the student loans handed out to the desperate.
I strongly support extending current student loan interest rates and increasing the college tuition tax credit for students and their families.