For many of us that are still students, we are semi-isolated from the financial crisis. We are though very familiar with the financial aid process that causes major head aches around this time of the year. Obama's new budget may change that.
The president is proposing an overhaul of the financial aid program, including nationalizing the lending process. Not surprisingly this will have a negative impact on lending institutions like Sallie Mae, but the plan is estimated to save the federal government 4 billion dollars. Along with saving the federal government money, the president is increasing the number of grants available to low income students and expanding eligibility to the federal loan program.
This though is a small step in terms of getting affordable education and many students will still be left with mounds of debt. It though signifies greater federal government involvement in higher education, letting us hope that free higher education will someday be a reality in the United States.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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We have to start raising that this crisis is as much about imposing debt on us to pay for what are essentially necessities as greedy bankers, so that the solution is not only to undermine the power of greedy bankers but to also reject consumer credit.
ReplyDeleteWe need to demand free education and finds ways to dump student debt.
Our wages are determined by the costs of reproducing our labor power at a certain level of cultural and material development. Student debt, like like all consumer debt, is a sign that our wages have been depressed below the value of labor power.