The problem with many student loans is that they can be capital transfers for community and college development in the name of student loans, but don’t expect to hear that said. Even more difficult than finding someone who understands that a student loan can be a costly setup for a student and especially so for any needing college prep classes before being capable of doing college-level work, can be finding someone who has ever heard about “harvesting freshmen.”
I’ve found a couple, a retired teacher and a state university president, who exclaimed, “You wouldn’t believe how profitable that is.” Does it take a Ph.D. to understand that?
College catalog statements about typical earnings of degreed professionals are effective bait, but the catalogs conveniently fail to state what percentage of beginning freshmen ever attain that, and the lower the socioeconomic level of the student, the greater the probability of attending third-rate schools peddling diplomas vs. educational achievement.
“Follow the money” is a worthy practice. Who invested significant sums in lobbying to create the “student loan” programs? Which business has fought against student loan forgiveness? Neither were low-income students.
Failure rates are a design feature in many products.
