June 27, 2008
Families Wonder if College Worth the Cost
The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that 78% of Illinois familes aren’t sure that college is worth the current high cost of attendance.
Read the excerpt below or click here to read the whole article.
Fewer than one in 10 Illinois residents feels strongly that college is worth the cost, a new
survey has found, leading some educators to worry that more families might begin foregoing
college if costs continue to rise.
A survey out Tuesday found strong support from just 7.8 percent of 1,150 people who were
asked if “college students today are getting their money’s worth.”
While more than half agreed “somewhat” with that statement, former University of Illinois
president Stanley Ikenberry said the results are worrisome.
“If I had my way, 100 percent would agree,” he said. “The cost of college tuition levels have
gone up quite substantially over the last half-dozen years, and the public really does feel the
pain of that.”
Two-thirds of those responding to the survey said students have to borrow too much to go
to college.
The report also found that only 11 percent of residents thought Illinois’ public universities
were “excellent;” many thought the state’s higher education system was simply on par with
other states’. For years, educators have prided themselves on having some of the top rated
U.S. colleges.
June 23, 2008
A Crash Course in Finance after College Graduation
The Washington Post ran a wonderful article on recent graduate’s finance questions from Michelle Singletary. Read the whole article by clicking here or read the excerpt below:
Many college graduates will soon be wondering whether they should aggressively pay off their student loan debt or let it linger and make monthly payments for the next 10 years or even decades to come.
…
Q: Should I buy a house in the Washington area or pay off part of my $52,000 adjustable-rate, 7 percent private student loan with the $25,000 bonus I will soon receive? I owe $98,000 more in federal student loans. This seems like a really good time to buy a house, but I would also like to pay down my debt. What is the best path to take?
A: Put off buying a home for now. You have way too much debt to take on a home. As for the bonus, hold back just a bit for your emergency fund. But then I would use most of it to pay down the student loan debt. Get rid of all that debt and experience the freedom you deserve.
June 11, 2008
High Gas prices affecting rural community colleges
Imagine that you’ve finally got yourself into college – a lifelong dream – only to be foiled by $4-a-gallon gas which means you can’t afford to drive there and back!
That’s a situation many are facing according to an interesting article from the the Chronicle of Higher Education. Click here to read the article.
June 3, 2008
Rep. Baca introduces legistlation to forgive student loans for all teachers at public schools
According to the press release which I finally got a hold of, Rep. Joe Baca of California introduced new legislation to forgive student loans for teachers who server 5 years at any public school in America.
Click here to read the full press release. Here’s an excerpt:
“Teaching is one of the most important professions in our society – yet too often, America’s educators find themselves underpaid, and overworked with high class sizes,” said Rep. Baca.
…
“The TEACH for our Future Act will help provide up to $25,000 in student loan relief to any teacher, regardless of the subject matter or part of the country they teach, as long as he or she has completed five years of quality work in one of our nation’s public schools.”
The TEACH for our Future Act … authorizes the Secretary of Education to repay up to $25,000 of a student loan for any teacher who completes five full-time school years at an elementary or secondary school. Previous government loan forgiveness programs for teachers have only provided relief to teachers who have taught specific subject matters, such as math and science, or in high-needs and difficult to staff rural or inner-city teaching districts. This legislation keeps these specific loan forgiveness programs intact, but also broadens the scope of such programs to include all public school teachers in the United States, and increases the level of debt relief to $25,000.
