Over one million students graduate college each year with student debt. And the debt loads at graduation keep rising (to say nothing of the debt loads of the usually less employable college drop-outs). Naturally, politicians of all stripes are proposing policy solutions. For example, the following has been proposed by 2016 Ohio candidate for the U.S. Senate, Democrat P.G. Sittenfeld: Reduce interest rates to 2 percent for all recipients of subsidized federal loans who graduated with a four-year college degree since 2009. Reduce interest rates to 3 percent for other federal loan … [Read more...] about Why not massively lower interest rates on students loans?
Culture
Why the Attraction of “Fifty Shades of Grey”?
Why are millions of twenty-first century women drawn to a story about a rich man wooing, oppressing and humiliating a young, vulnerable woman? Don't we live in a day in which sexual assault on college campuses and domestic abuse by professional football players fills us with indignation? Ross Douthat explain this mystery: Viewed from one angle, the sexual revolution looks obviously egalitarian. It's about extending to everyone the liberties--the freedom to be promiscuous, to pursue sexual fulfillment without guilt--that were once available only to privileged cisgendered heterosexual males. … [Read more...] about Why the Attraction of “Fifty Shades of Grey”?
How Do Americans Pay For College?
The latest national study on how Americans pay for college is out from Sallie Mae and Ipsos. The 2014 breakdown: Student borrowing and parent borrowing were at 18% and 9%, respectively, in 2013--so that's a pretty big decline in borrowing. Other key findings: … [Read more...] about How Do Americans Pay For College?
Mark Kantrowitz on The Value of College, Student Loans, and More
Mark Kantrowitz is the publisher of Edvisors.com and the co-author of Filing the FAFSA. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us on the cost and value of college, students loans, and other related issues. Readers may recall that I've previously interviewed Anya Kamenetz, David Wilezol, and Robert Archibald. Consider this another installment in the series. Could you tell us about the work of edvisors.com, and your role? Edvisors.com is a comprehensive, up-to-date web site about planning and paying for college. It launched in June with coverage of more than 400 topics, including … [Read more...] about Mark Kantrowitz on The Value of College, Student Loans, and More
Are College Students Borrowing Blindly?
A new report from the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings finds that "about half of all first-year students...seriously underestimate how much student debt they have, and less than one-third provide an accurate estimate within a reasonable margin of error." … [Read more...] about Are College Students Borrowing Blindly?
Eric Garner Was Unjustly Killed By Police
I stayed mostly silent on the Ferguson matter, which was murky because of the forensic evidence and the divergent accounts from witnesses. But this Eric Garner situation looks unambiguous to me. I'm happy to stand corrected (Prov. 18:17), but I can discern no reason whatsoever why an NYPD officer who put a man in a chokehold--in violation of NYPD protocol--and resulting in the man losing his life--should not be indicted on manslaughter charges. An indictment is not a conviction. It just creates the context in which a trial can go forward and/or a plea can be submitted. Sean Davis makes the … [Read more...] about Eric Garner Was Unjustly Killed By Police