Obama’s student-loan reform ignites college debate

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

The future of a college graduate doesn’t look bright.

Although it’s estimated that nearly 60 percent of future jobs will require more than a high-school degree, the shadow of student debt is sure to overshadow graduates and plague students. Just by the end of this year, American student-loan debt will surpass credit-card debt at $1 trillion dollars.

That’s nearly half the cost of a Kardashian wedding.

The issue of student-loan debt is intricate and has long-term implications on the national economy. Even if a student is able to repay his or her loan within a 20-year period, by the time you’re 20, you’ve probably got a family to support and retirement to save for, making financing your children’s education a nightmare.

Fortunately, there is help along the way, in the form of student-loan reformation, courtesy of President Obama. Obama’s “Pay As You Earn” plan is an income-based student-loan reform that caps the amount graduates must pay for their loans at 10 percent of their discretionary income. It makes consolidating federal student loans simplified and forgives the balance of a borrower’s debt after 20 years of repayment.

In short, there’s little in the form of immediate relief, but the legislation strikes at the core of the student-debt problem and paves a way for future economic growth by allowing graduates with families the opportunity to budget their child’s education.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a student today that opposes such measures. But when Obama made a speech at the University of Colorado, he asserted his belief that government “should be doing everything we can to put a college education within reach for every American.” I’m fairly liberal when it comes to politics and would normally agree with such a statement, but I couldn’t help but find myself at odds with that assertion.

Whether or not we should encourage more students to attend college is a complex issue. Colleges are already dealing with overcrowding and student apathy. Increases in applicants will only encourage colleges to let in more students, even if only by small increments every year. Do we really need more students coming into classrooms, wasting valuable time and space?

But desire for students, whether it is a good decision for them to attend college or not, cannot be blatantly ignored. College is a time for personal growth, self-exploration and empowerment. Even if you don’t complete college, you learn valuable, long-term lessons and make invaluable connections. An increased amount of Americans attending colleges will lead to a better-informed populous that’s better equipped to make smart financial and personal decisions.

The student-loan reform effectively meets the medium between those two extremes: It benefits students and graduates without much negative recourse to loaning institutions and doesn’t incentivize indecisive students to pursue the college education that they would have otherwise abandoned by providing short-term relief.

I haven’t personally come to a conclusion as to whether I agree with that statement or not, but I do feel that the president, by making that remark, has allowed Americans to engage in an under-discussed conversation about the value of a college education.