WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement today welcoming an Executive Order from President Obama that will allow an additional five million borrowers with Federal Direct student loans to cap their monthly payments at just 10 percent of their income, according to the White House.
“The average college student today is saddled with more than $29,000 in federal student loan debt. That is debt holding young Americans in Iowa and around the country back from buying a home, investing in a small business, or starting a family. I applaud the President for taking action to ease the burden of federal student loan debt for struggling borrowers,” Harkin said. “I am also pleased to see critical steps taken to ensure that servicemembers are getting the benefits they’ve earned through their service to our country. The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which the HELP Committee has been focused on for the last nine months, will present a historic opportunity for Congress to focus on college affordability and accountability, help borrowers with existing student debt, and increase transparency so students and families can make informed decisions. I look forward to continued work with members of the Committee to achieve these shared goals.”
Harkin, as Chair of the HELP Committee, has convened ten hearings focused on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the main federal law overseeing the higher education system in the United States. Hearings to date have focused on the “triad” – the United States’ three-legged system of oversight and accountability in higher education; innovations to improve student success and degree attainment; federal student aid simplification to help ensure equal access to higher education for all students; an examination of the U.S. accreditation system; a look at ways to strengthen the TRIO and GEAR UP programs to ensure low-income students have the tools they need to access and persist through college; a roundtable on promoting college access for students with disabilities; the role of teacher preparation programs in promoting student success; the federal student loan program; best practices and innovations for student success at minority-serving institutions; and access and supports for servicemembers and veterans.
Besides if the government wasn’t subsidizing education the cost would be more competitive and cost less.
Harkin applauds taking responsible peoples money to give to idiots. At least he is consistent. That mantra has kept in office for along time. It’s just so intellectually weak to just throw everyone elses money at so called problems.
How does college cost? Answer: It costs whatever the government is paying.
College educations in America short of specialty technical degrees are a joke. They don’t teach the skills we really need to understand our world and interface with it. For example: When’s the last time High Schools or Junior Highs have taught organic gardening? How about how to procure water, drill for a well, purify it? Process waste water? Make wind turbines? The colleges create a bunch of HVAC secretaries, with no real skills that we need to live and live well.
I want all my student loan debt forgiven on the grounds that the education I was receiving was worthless and irrelevant.
You’re so infinitely wise that you should have known college had nothing to teach you. Why on earth would you have thought otherwise?
Probably because I wanted to believe the humans before me knew what they were doing and had something to offer. There’s no time for nice anymore. The colleges need to transition their programs to relevant biotecture programs or close their doors. Junior highs and high schools also. They have no reason not to teach Iowans proper land stewardship and how to live without a grocery store. General Mills and Kraft would have a hissy fit if people learned away from manufactured food.
It should be started in elementary school. But here’s the kicker: the education system can only teach what society has set up to be considered infrastructure and structure. Fluff education exists because the culture revolves around HVAC and color TVs. I would immediately teach the following curriculum: edible foods, gardening techniques, water hydro cycle, procurement and purification, human excrement composting, solar energy technology, energy from wind, 1:1 one human=one acre
And it’s beyond textbook learning. I’m talking living laboratories with hands on experience and current material sciences to do the jobs needed. Homes will need to change in their composition and practice. Central oligarchy power exists in America precisely because power has been taken away from the home and community. TV, mass media, big oil, centralized electrical grid, mass processed foods shaped our education system into its near worthless condition it’s in today.
But wait, everyone’s so worried and occupied with being “hot”, sexy and rich in this culture I’m not sure my education overhaul plan would work. Then again, when enough people move to the country and start alternative communities, an appropriate education system will become inevitable. Then what would Jim Boehnke do? “Omg, the people are moving out of my ward!” ” who can I comb my hair for?!!”
And it’s important to get rid of this distinction of “higher” education. There is no higher or lower, there is only EDUCATION.
@Philly-no one twisted your arm to make you go to college. You didn’t learn anything anyway and just continue to be a waste of space. I would be willing to bet that you are not paying back your student loans anyway. You have no respect for your self and certainly no ambition or skills. You can’t even dig a hole in the ground without help.
After you’ve excavated a six foot deep 1200 sq. ft basement with a shovel and wheelbarrow by yourself, come back and tell me about it. Till then LVS put the plug in your other hole for awhile.
@Philly-You have been at it for months and so far are not even a foot deep. That is what happens when you are stoned all the time. Or, is this just another one of your lies big mouth.
I haven’t been digging for a month you silly turd, I’ve been helping people with broken lives get their footings. I’ve only dug for 2 days. I’m at it full sail now though. Too bad matts the only one who can post photos or else id show you my progress.
@Philly-Sounds like more lies from the biggest Bull S###er on here.
You have been digging holes for yourself your whole life. The latest one just happens to be literal.
No, it’s but the inevitable clash that occurs phasing from one broken corrupted culture to discovering and pioneering a new one. I’ve written essays about the “Predatory Society” that deceives and rips off unsuspecting new crops of humans. Once my laboratory is complete, I will be taking the ministry full steam ahead as I attempt to deliver subsequent generations from this evil, and hopefully provide a lighthouse for my next incarnation to find.
You keep saying that LVS, but I’m taking steps towards emancipation and protection from such hideous places, while you seem to be walking right towards the ward door. Are you running out of material ? Go online and support some starving college kid who writes insult humor. Get out your debit card.
They know how much it is going to cost when they go to college. Then they borrow for “living expenses” and do nothing but party. Bitching about paying back the money they borrowed is like bitching about a car payment after you buy a new Caddy. We have to pay our debts and so should they.
Do you really think college students “do nothing but party”? You didn’t go to college, did you?
Yes I did, but I didn’t borrow to do it. Didn’t have time to party. Spent all of my off time working rather than going in debt. My kids did the same thing.
Work on job creation so they can be employed instead of endless dollars going to pay people not to work.
Only reason dollars goes to pay people not to work is on count of Democraps. We got to many people. Them loaffers gets hungry enough they can riot, fine we could shoot them dead if it would of not be for the Democraps. Or they move to some where else. Democraps want to feed the trash thats for there vote’s yes.
I will “applaud” the day this old raison finally leaves office.
Touché Grassley.
Rather than making taxpayers subsidize these loans maybe we should work on lowering college tuition. Some people choose not to go to college so why should they pay to help someone else get a college education?
@Unfair-very good point. Why should we pay so they can go party at a college. If they want to go that is fine, but let them pay themselves. Cut college cost so it is affordable or don’t go. It is supply and demand. If they stop paying everytime they want a raise they will have to cut back. Education cost is way out of control. Vo-tech education is as good or better. We used to call them trade schools.