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113 posts tagged occupy sallie mae
Student debt an issue with the Baby Boomers too!
Even as total outstanding student debt rises to $1 trillion, lawmakers have yet to allow loans to be discharged in bankruptcy.
Without an escape clause, these loans can strangle a person.
Take 36-year-old Nick Keith, who remains $142,000 eight years after graduating from culinary school. He’s featured in a new film, DEFAULT: The Student Loan Documentary, in which several college graduates expose the pitfalls of the private student loan industry.
defaultmovie:
DEFAULT: The Student Loan Documentary voted “Best Short Documentary” by SF Indie Fest!!!
AUDIENCE AWARDS
LAST DAYS HERE -Audience Choice for Best Film
JUKO’S TIME MACHINE - Best Feature Narrative
NO LOOK PASS - Best Feature Documentary
LITTLE HORSES - Best Short Narrative
DEFAULT - Best Short Documentary
TIME FOR CHANGE - Best Animation
(via occupysalliemae)
I went back to school at 37 years old, after having been out for nineteen years. I only went to 10th grade, and didn’t finish that, Both of my kids were grown, and it was my turn to go after a better career than waitressing.
I started city college in 1988, at the back of the bus. Math one, English one, etc., and finished on the Deans Honor List, and a few scholarships to UCSB in Santa Barbara. I went there two years, graduated with honors and a BA in Psychology and Sociology.
I went after work in Vegas, and also enrolled at UNLV. I graduated there with honors, and a MA in Western History. Not very practical any of it for finding future work, unless you wanted to be a teacher.
When I left school in 1997, I immediately had to go to my mother’s house and take care of her. She had fallen, broke her hip and couldn’t walk. This began a downward spiral, and I stayed on her couch for two years while caring for her until she died.
I had not paid student loans, and they were gathering interest. I owed on them now $30,000. Suffice it to say I didn’t make enough money to start paying them anything for another three years. I started paying them $150 dollars a month in 2003. I paid them that until 2005, when I started paying them $280. I paid them that amount until 2008, when I began paying them $340. In 2010 I began paying them $400, and am paying them that at the present time.
I’ve done the calculations of the amount I’ve paid Sallie Mae, after consolidating with them. I’ve paid them approximately $25,000, five thousand short of the original $30,000 when I consolidated. At the present moment I owe them $63,000, and will never be able to pay it off in my lifetime.
They are government sanctioned loan sharks, and I think it’s completely unfair. My husband has been out of work for three years now, my overhead is steep, and I still can’t wrap my head around them being able to cheat people this way.
I have a good job, but don’t know how long I can keep it, with this economy. My company is downsizing, and after ten years I could be one of the ones to go soon. My mother in law has stage four cancer, and Chase bank is foreclosing on her mortgage. So you see everyone is having troubles.
Albert Lord: We need to talk!
Today is National Fax-in Day to Albert Lord, Sallie Mae’s CEO. We are asking for a meeting with students from around the country that will be visiting the Sallie Mae DC office. Below is a sample letter we are asking people to FAX to Albert Lord and Sallie Mae. CLICK HERE to do it from your computer.
Albert Lord,
For months now, we have been asking Sallie Mae to meet with us to talk about the burden that student debt causes us and our communities. We’ve only heard silence in return, so now we’re contacting you.
1) Stop robbing us of our futures: Forgive student debt after five years of repayment and eliminate all interest on student loans. This would end the student debt crisis, allow millions of students to obtain a college degree, reset the housing market, pump billions of dollars back into the economy, and create jobs.
2) Pay your fair share: Stop draining government of revenue. Pay the statutorily required 35% corporate income tax instead of gaming the system through off-shore tax shelters, loopholes, and scams.
3) Get your money out of my democracy: Disclose corporate money in elections to date and pledge to keep all corporate money out of the 2012 and future elections. This includes an end to lobbying on public policy issues, such as Pell Grant and Trio Programs.
4) We need to talk. Albert Lord, will you meet with United States Student Association and Student Labor Action Project representatives on March 26th?
Sincerely.
Your Name Here
TO:
Albert Lord
Sallie Mae, Inc
P.O. Box 9532
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18773-9532
US
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18773-9532
US
Fax:(800) 848-1949
“A human being is not attaining his full heights until he is educated” -Horace Mann
I am 44 years old and just finished my B.A. degree, I tried to go to school in my 20’s and 30’s but did it with the intention of not going into debt by working full time while in school. I always ended up dropping out because of the pressures and the fact that I realized I wasn’t getting an education. I would compensate for actual learning by just trying to pass the classes. I had no time to learn because I was always working. I had to ask the question, “did I want an education or a piece of paper that said I got an education” so I dropped out realizing that I was learning nothing. I am in my 40’s now and finally got my B.A. and intend to go to grad school. My fear of being an indentured slave to my debts kept me from pursuing my desire of education, is this true freedom? I am going in debt and have accepted this dilemma but avoided it for years and so avoided myself for years.
“necessitous men are not free men”
The intense debt we go into in order to get an education I feel keeps many from becoming educated. My story is the huge debt I will be in by the time I finish grad school. But also I have the story of avoiding my desire for education because of this fear of debt. I know many out there who are also in this dilemma. There is another story to this debt threat and that is those who stay uneducated, un-actualized, unfulfilled because of the threat of being in debt. Is this a free society? Do we want to live in a country that keeps us in fear of becoming educated? Getting my degree has been one of the greatest experiences of my life and it saddens me to think I almost denied myself this gift. I know of others who have denied themselves this gift and we can assume there are many others in the same situation.
Is this freedom and equal opportunity? Education is not a commodity it is a gift we give to ourselves and to our society.
I do not have a photo, but I do have a story. Student loans are one of the greatest scams of all time. Lure young people into institutions of higher learning and give them a dream. Tell them that no matter their circumstance, they can reach unimaginable heights with their college education. Well, thanks to a six-figure education debt, my dream has quickly turned into a nightmare.
As a first-generation college graduate, I did not know my options. For me, the only way to pay for school was through assistance. Although my parents made no more than $25,000/year (one on partial medical disability and the other a hairdresser), we weren’t “poor enough” to qualify for the free money, but we were just the right fit for federal student loans. I tried everything in my power not to get them. I worked three jobs throughout college and yet, I still did not have enough money. The money I made simply went towards eating, paying for books, and living arrangements. I didn’t own anything extravagant. I didn’t have a car, nor did I have a computer. I simply needed the loans to keep me in school.
Having done some volunteer work in undergrad, I decided that I wanted to become a teacher. Everyone was against it. They warned me about the financial burden of teaching, but I did not listen. I only wanted to make a difference. I became apart of the university’s teacher education program and again was enticed by the opportunity of a profession that would “forgive student loan debt.” Little did I know there were such narrow constraints on who benefits from this repayment. Student teaching, which lasted the entire year, was unpaid. And, because I decided to stay in the school in which I completed my student teaching (I did not have the financial means to pick up and move to another city), I was eliminated from the possibility of getting the repayment, for my district did not have any Title I high schools. While teaching for five years, I had to get a Master’s degree (continual professional development to renew teacher certification) and the school system did not help me to pay for any of it. Thus, I needed additional loans.
After two degrees and five years of teaching high school Reading, I left the profession in hopes of finding another career that paid more money so that I can afford the $631.00/month student loan payments. So, not only have I abandoned a career that I actually enjoyed (and good teachers are hard to come by), I am still burdened with over six figures of loans to pay back. Right now, I make a slightly higher salary than teaching. However, I still have to work two other jobs just to make ends meet. All of the income-based deferment options are a load of bull and I find it criminal that they calculate your monthly income before taxes. Those taxes aren’t mine (they are going to be taken), so why should that count towards income?
It’s frustrating to know that I sacrificed so much to become a productive member of society. It’s a shame that there is no help for the people who really need it. Citi had control over my student loans, and they have since now been passed on to Sallie Mae. If they were bailed out, how come the working people of this country cannot get any relief? I have not participated in stimulating this economy in the past few years. I cannot afford to buy a car, a new home, or even do much commercial shopping, thanks to student loan debt (I’m not even going to go there about my credit history being ruined because of one missed payment!). I know that there are many people walking in my shoes and I pray that there is relief for us soon.
I graduated highschool in 2005 from a relatively small class (156) all of which were headed off to college. Graduating with a 3.9 I figured I’d continue my education and head off to college as well. I shopped around but didn’t really understand how much college was truly going to cost me. I was accepted to every school I applied to and settled on a small private college called Wittenberg University and chose it due to its small campus/class size and the fact that they offered me the most money in financial aid. Little did I know most of this was to be paid back and on TOP of that I had to take out student loans.
The first 2 years went by quick and I thought nothing of the financial issues about to smack me in the face in the very near future. Before my 3rd year my mother informed me that she could no longer take out Parent loans for the rest of my college tuition and that I would have to take a loan out. I had 0 credit and I could NOT get approved for a student loan. This forced me to get a co-signer (my grandfather) for a PRIVATE loan of $26,000 to pay off the last 2 years of college. Every year college tuition went up with my senior year costing me roughly $14,000 ($43,000 before grants/scholarships/etc). I graduated in 2009 with a degree that was the MAIN degree for the campus (East Asian Studies) being told my only job prospects would be teaching English in a foreign country which I have no interest in doing. I pay roughly $800 a month in student loans and almost 3 years after my graduation I’m still $64,794.66 in debt having held no real solid means of employment for over a year. I’m currently employed in retail, and not even making enough in a month to cover my loan payments. This has forced me to move back home and be a burden on my family (although they dont mind, I MIND). I’m currently $850 past due on loan payments to various loan companies and my deferment time has already been eaten through. I get 10+ (not an exaggeration) a DAY from creditors threatening to ruin my credit, my co-signers credit, and turn me in for collections. My private loan that I got has a payment of $207 a month and in that month is accrues $150 in interest. So I’m paying $57 on the actual loan amount each month, when I CAN make the payments. I’ll never be out of debt. I can’t move to an area with better opportunities as I have no money to do so and even when I can my credit (which was over 700 at one point due to my mother putting a car in my name and paying it off while I was in college) will be in the gutters. I loved college and the experience but the system is so far beyond corrupt that there’s just no way normal people can pay for it. I’m stuck with a house payment with no house, making $7.50 an hour with a college degree and 10 years of work experience from retail, sales, to 4 years in IT.
Mike
#occupystudentdebt
