DES MOINES – Iowa’s student loan debt has reached more than $13 billion, and a liberal political organization says Governor Kim Reynolds and Republican policies are to blame.
According to Progress Iowa, which bills itself as “a multi-issue progressive advocacy organization”:
Iowa’s total student loan debt balance was $13.08 billion as of 2016, according to recently released figures from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), while Iowa ranks 15th worst in the nation for student debt with an average of $29,574 per graduate, and two thirds of Iowa students taking loans. The U.S. Dept. of Education also found that students in Iowa default on their loans at a higher rate than the national average.
“Governor Reynolds and Republicans in the legislature have gutted funding for higher education, and more Iowans are feeling the burden of student loan debt as a result,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. “Every dollar in student loan debt is a dollar not spent in the local economy. If the Governor wants to create a strong economy for every Iowan, she should focus on investment in public services like higher education, not one corporate tax giveaway after another. The $13 billion in student debt held by Iowans would be much better spent in our local economy. Unfortunately, the failed priorities of Governor Reynolds have made that impossible.”
In their recently released “Snapshot on Student Debt” the CFPB, based on consumer information compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, totaled Iowa borrower’s’ share of the $1.4 trillion plus student loan debt held nationally in 2016 at $13.08 billion. The report also found Iowa consumer complaints filed with the CFPB about their loans and collection practices rose 70 percent from October 2015 to September 2016 compared with complaints between October 2016 and September 2017.
A report issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also shows that rising student debt delays homeownership, and decreases purchasing power, leading to a drag on the economy. The report also says that “A policy decision to fund state higher education can stimulate youth homeownership in the long run.”
Despite the increasing debt load, Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Republican-controlled legislature decreased funding to higher education earlier this year, causing the state’s public universities to increase tuition, which will only deepen the need for students to borrow in order to further their education.
The kids don’t get the money it goes to the schools. And the schools are constantly raising the costs. Most college students are broke and live in a utopia filled with youthful revelry. Campuses are alive with idealistic fervor and upon leaving experience a culture shock of sorts when entering the real world. With a massive debt to sort out for it is profit that drives these money handouts. It’s a business. And people are getting rich off it. To go to a four year university expect to shell out $100,000 to others and learn to enjoy ramen noodles.
College tuitions have skyrocketed because of democrat programs like pell grants and guaranteed student loans. Colleges just vacuum up all that free cash and raise tuition even higher. Government then throws more money at student loans and grants and the cycle continues. It’s lunacy.
Make colleges themselves loan the money. Not we the taxpayers. Then if students default, the colleges themselves are out, not us. Colleges would then think twice before adding endless layers of bureacracy like, Assistant Vice Provost of Student Diversity and Gender Equity and building million dollar rock climbing walls and adding meaningless majors like Social Justice.
But it won’t happen. Democrats will always cry for the cameras that we need to “invest more money in education.” So they can continue to pander to their liberal base and spend more and more of your money.
Student loans aren’t dismissible. Noone is able to ‘default’ on their payments.
We certainly don’t need any more educated people here in the USA, do we? With King Donald leading us, all our problems are solved. He will turn the snows into oil, the water into wine. He will put steak on every table and eliminate poor people. Education? Heck, King Don is smart enough for us all. Ask him, he will tell how smart he is.
Apparently you guys can’t read this long of an article. It tells how much of a drag on our economy the present loan debt is having if you read all the way to the end. You want to MAGA? Keeping young people from purchasing homes is a way to not do that. But, who cares, right? It’s not my kid who has that massive debt, so it doesn’t affect me and I don’t care.
Evidently you didn’t read AND comprehend the 12:19 and 7:27 posts. It’s the lib’s policies that are raising the tuition etc. And you are an ex-school teacher. Sheeeesh!!!! And you made more money than Mike. He must really be a dud.
P.S. NIT is sure lucky to have you post on these pages. I’ll bet your favorite color is moron.
Evidently you are the epitome of a dumbass.
You are the typical Nitwit that is drawn to this site of ignorance & stupidity.
While there are a few posters here of intelligence, it is moronic assholes like you that pervade this site.
I also join the other Anonymous in judging you to be a moron based primarily on the fact I didn’t read and comprehend the 12:19 and 7:27 posts before I posted because they were posted AFTER I posted. I do not know who Mike is but I am sure he’s a lot smarter than you but that isn’t saying much. My sidewalk is smarter than you.
You are the moron here, Sheeeesh!!!! By simply being able to tell and comprehend time you could have kept yourself from looking very uneducated!
Bodacious make the comment before the other comments you speak of were even posted you fool.
Maybe if these liberal idiots would pay their bills they wouldn’t have this issue. They wanted Bernie elected so they could get their hangouts.
How stupid is this? Blaming the Governor because people don’t have enough sense not to borrow more than they can afford.
You are spot on. The next issue is that everyone with an IQ above single digits is accepted into these schools to earn degrees for showing up (like participation trophies), for jobs that don’t need a degree and won’t pay enough to repay that student debt, let alone support themselves on