A new report by the Project on Student Debt shows that an alarming number of students are taking out private student loans, which often come with high and variable interest rates and few borrower protections, before exhausting federal sources of funding.
Among their findings:
The portion of private loan borrowers who did not exhaust federal sources of student loans increased from 48% in 2003-04 to 64% in 2007-08.
The portion of all undergrads who borrow private loans has increased dramatically from 5% in 2003-04 to 14% in 2007-08. Students at certain kinds of institutions are much more likely to take out private student loans, however. 14% of students at public four year universities have private loans, compared to 42% of students at for-profit schools.
African Americans are the most likely to borrow private loans. Between 2003-04 and 2007-08, the number of percentage of African American undergrads who took out private loans rose from 4% to an alarming 17%.
Though these loans often come with interest rates comparable to a credit card and few borrower protections, borrowers are unable to discharge them in bankruptcy.
The Project on Student Debt is also calling on folks to support a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that, among other things, could regulate private student loans. Despite some new disclosure regulations passed last year, not enough has been done to reign in the growth of these dangerous loans. Take action by clicking here.
Yesterday I sent off a Tweet saying: “Tired of Waxman compromising. Admiring Peterson for standing up for his constituents (ag). Wish Markey would too. #ACES” just to receive a bunch of responses along the lines of: “I don’t understand what you’re talking about” and realized maybe it’s time for a non-wonky update on why our future (might) not be as rosy as it could be.
The Waxman Markey bill (aka American Clean Energy and Security Act, Clean Energy Jobs bill, Lightswitch Tax,Clean Coal Billetc) started out as an ambitious proposal in President Obama’s budget which called for the United States to once again find its greatness and power through an overhaul of the way we use electricity. It called for us to generate large amounts of renewable energy (i.e. energy that doesn’t run out and doesn’t harm the health of surrounding communities), to stop wasting electricity by modernizing our distribution networks and a plan to put a price on carbon and redirect revenue to help low-income Americans cope with increasing energy prices and help mitigate effects of the climate crisis throughout the world among others.
The pressure from the American public may sway the debate over health care reform taking place in Congress right now. According to the latest New York Times/CBS poll, Americans strongly support a government run public health insurance plan, which is the most critical piece of the health care debate and the key to whether legislation can be considered real reform or not.
The poll found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.
We have to keep up the momentum. Congress should feel the pressure this Thursday June 25th when thousands of health care reform supporters travel from across the country for a national rally and lobby day hosted by Health Care for America NOW: Health Care Can’t Wait ‘09!
Young people are worried. We have a future ahead of us that is overshadowed with a troubled economy, no jobs, no health insurance, possibly no social security, and a society that is addicted to destructive fossil fuels. We’re focused on Congress as they debate our future in health care, clean energy and green jobs. But so far, after seeing the weakened Waxman-Markey bill and the draft health care reform bill leaked from the Senate Finance Committee today, it seems that both attempts to address these serious crises – climate change, the need for green jobs, our broken health care system – are simply “better than nothing” proposals. As Igor Volsky and Ezra Klein pointed out in regards to the draft health care reform legislation:
I think Ezra Klein is right to argue that the leaked version of the Senate Finance Committee’s health reform legislation is somewhat of a nothing-burger. It’s not well done, it’s not rare, it’s just medium well.
Individuals and families up to 300% of Federal Poverty Level (FPL) would receive tax credits to cover the cost of coverage and small businesses would be eligible for a temporary small business tax credit. Again, the subsidies aren’t great, but they’re better than nothing.
That’s it?! Better than nothing?? Don’t we deserve better than that?
Nothing is what some of these proposals seem to offer. The most significant omission in the leaked health care reform legislation from the Senate Finance Committee is the absence of the public option. In its place is the co-op proposal, introduced by Senator Conrad (D- N.Dakota). Mother Jones does a good job of summing up the ugly compromise:
What is in the Finance Committee’s draft, and slated for further discussion, is a scheme for health care “co-ops” that would pool individuals and businesses together into consumer co-operatives to purchase health insurance and services. (Kaiser Health News has profiled one existing co-op in Seattle.) Baucus [Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee] has been talking out of both sides of his mouth on the public plan for some time, and seemed to quickly latch onto the co-op idea as means to having it both ways.
Co-ops are a weak alternative to the public plan and have been tried before, after the Great Depression, and failed.
We can’t afford weak alternatives. Congress should be writing the strongest proposals possible, but are instead releasing watered-down bills, drenched in industry money and influence, and all we can say is “well it’s better than nothing.” This is unacceptable. Our futures deserve better. For example, why not single-payer health care? Yes, Campus Progress, along with many other health care reform supporters, has been advocating for the public health insurance option that will provide quality, affordable health care for all. However, if single-payer health care were on the table it would be the more progressive plan to fight for.
So why isn’t single-payer health care on the table? Well to start, Conservatives are painting this option as “socialized medicine” or “government take-over”. And the insurance industry strongly opposes the plan because it would mean the end of their glory days. But let’s get one thing straight, single-payer health care is NOT socialized medicine. I liked the Daily Kos explanation of the major differences between the two terms that are getting, conveniently for those opposing it, tossed into the same boat too frequently:
Socialized medicine is a system in which the government owns the means of providing medicine. Single-payer health care is not socialized medicine. It’s a system in which one institution purchases all, or in reality, most, of the care. But the payer does not own the doctors or the hospitals or the nurses or the MRI scanners. Medicare is an example of a mostly single-payer system, as is France.
So if we just understood the difference between the two and made sure Congress knew that we demanded single-payer health care, could it be an option? Would it actually get passed? The answer, unfortunately, is not likely. Even Obama rejects the idea, but for less selfish reasons than the industry:
“If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense,” Obama said in response to the questioner in New Mexico, echoing comments he made during his presidential campaign. “The only problem is that we’re not starting from scratch. . . . We don’t want a huge disruption as we go into health-care reform where suddenly we’re trying to completely reinvent one-sixth of the economy.”
It just seems that there is no chance for single-payer health care to pass through Congress because it is too radical of a change. So, if we have to take incremental steps to get there, so be it. But we will not settle for “better than nothing” alternatives.
Call your Senators today and demand a stronger health care bill, with NO Co-ops, NO Triggers, and NO “better than nothing” compromises!
Rendered image approximation of completed FutureGen facility
News broke today that the Obama administration restored funding to the controversial government research project FutureGen. Funding had been cut by President Bush in an unusual (though inadvertent) act of environmental sanity.
For those of you not in the loop, FutureGen was supposed to be the Government’s demonstration project to research and prove the viability of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CSS). CCS is a magical and mystical technique (is it a spell? a potion? no-one really knows) to capture carbon dioxide spewed by coal burning power plants, liquify it, and then bury it underground. Proponents of this fantastic technology claim that it would solve a whole slew of problems by dealing with the climate crisis while protecting the coal industry’s profits, ensuring the continuation of their ability to buy coal state politicians and maintaining King Coal’s feudal-like grip on Appalachia and other coal-mining regions.
This was the whole premise of Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Unfortunately, things aren’t as rosey as its proponents claim. Cost estimates for FutureGen are steadily on the rise and most studies doubt the technology’s ability to produce electricity at a competitive price. In what should have been a final nail on the CCS coffin, the country of Norway which is well known for pioneering the technology, is increasingly worried that sequestered gasses just aren’t staying underground. All evidence suggests that taking greenhouse gasses, liquifing them and sticking them underground hoping that they won’t leak is like dealing with an approaching asteroid by having every human being on the planet blow air at it.
Unfortunately, coal industry astroturfing and copious lobbying expenses managed to convince most politicians that a magical world powered by ‘clean coal’ is possible and right around the corner, prompting the Obama administration to restore copious amounts of funding to FutureGen. This is what Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois had to say:
“In my time in Congress, I can’t recall a project that has greater scientific and practical significance than FutureGen, not to mention the enormous economic benefit it will have in Illinois”
Not one? Possibly that’s because there just haven’t been any programs of similar proportions for the real solutions to the climate crisis. All that money would go very far in helping to develop breakthroughs in cheaper and more realistic technologies such as enhanced geothermal (which could be deployed anywhere, uses similar technology to oil drilling and would help transition workers from fossil industries), hydrokinetic (using waves, currents and tides), and advanced efficiency measures (which provide the cheapest, cleanest form of energy).
This is what is most disconcerning about the American Clean Energy and Security Act. This bill is supposed to lay the strategy for our epic fight against the climate crisis, but what it mostly ends up doing is bailing out fossil intensive industries propping them up to fight for continued handouts while drawning out efforts from emergin firms to innovate the way we produce, distribute and use energy.
There will most likely be a floor vote in the house about the American Clean Energy and Security Act in about two weeks. Now is the time to get active in your community. Call your representative, visit his or her district office and tell them you will not stand for a warming world, that the future of our planet is worth more than the FutureGen gamble tell them you want them to introduce amendments to:
Axe the $500 energy tax earmarked for ”clean coal” development and divert the giveaways for coal plants and oil refiners to clean energy research, development and deployment.
Strengthen the Renewable and Energy Efficiency Standards to 30% by 2020 with a at least a >2% carveout for solar.
Strengthen emission reduction targets to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 as science demands.
There will be another congressional hearing about the climate bill tomorrow, and guess who is on the stand? Five people representing fossil industries, one faith leader, and an economist from the most corporatist ‘environmental’ organization around.
There are no young people on the panel and our only ally, Maria Castellanos from the United Church of Christ, is also the only witness who isn’t white, a man, and whose pockets aren’t lined with bloody fossil fuel cash.
Wouldn’t it be nice to let these people know what we think they should be saying? I looked around for their e-mail addresses for you. Pick one person, and send them a quick note. I chose Mr. Keohane from the Environmental Defense Fund and this is what I’m writing him:
Students around the country are getting together on Facebook to tell Congress that they should put students over banks! Groups are going up in each state, and each group will serve as a petition to the state’s Senators. The petitions call on Congress to support President Obama’s plan to cut wasteful subsidies to banks, and use the estimated $94 billion in savings to provide grants for students.
Campus Progress and partner organizations (PIRGs, USSA, etc.) will make sure to let Senators know about the petitions. Join your state’s petition, and invite your friends! You can find a link to your state’s group here:
It’s Graduation season -a time for celebration. Yet many college graduates this year may be celebrating with a few significant concerns hovering in the back of their minds, such as entering a depleting job market (According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers only 20% of 2009 graduates who have applied for jobs have been hired, compared to 51% in 2007), or facing a crushing burden of student loan debt (The average amount of debt a student graduates with is a hefty $20,000, according to the Project on Student Debt), or the final concern of graduating into the new status of being completely uninsured.
Young adults, ages 19-29, account for the largest and fastest-growing segment of the population without health insurance, according to the CommonWealth Fund. Many young people are dropped from their parents’ policies or public programs when they turn 19 or on the very day they graduate, leaving them out in the cold to find coverage and navigate the confusing private health insurance market on their own. Even when hired into the job market, many young adults are entering into low-income, entry-level, or temporary positions where health benefits may not be offered or are very limited. This is not only a health risk, but it puts immediate financial stress on young adults who are just starting out in the workforce. Low-income young adults and young people of color are hit the hardest.
So, on top of the stress of finding a job and working in low-income or temporary positions just to pay off student debt and bills, young graduates are struggling with the fear of not being covered in a health emergency or they are paying outrageous out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions or health care visits. Graduation has literally become hazardous to your health.
Check out this article Out of College, Out of Coverage for stories from graduating students worried about losing their health insurance:
Stefanie Swanson, 21, of Doylestown, who is graduating from Villanova University, recently caught up on her medical checkups in advance of her graduation – and loss of coverage – later this month. “I won’t be covered by the end of May,” she says. “Hopefully, nothing will happen between now and when I get a job.”
Lateefah Holder, 23, a Temple University senior and theater major, knows firsthand the steep cost of living without insurance. She lost coverage under her parents’ plan three years ago after she became a part-time student. When she got the flu last year, she passed out, hit her head, and was hospitalized with a concussion. She’s graduating this month with $5,000 in medical bills, along with $80,000 in college loans.
“At this age, you never think something is going to happen to you,” says Holder, who is from Bloomfield, N.J., “but you’re wrong.”
The increasing loss of coverage among young people just represents the spreading illness that has become our failing health care system. We can’t let this generation fall through the cracks.
President Obama has a plan to make college more affordable for millions of Americans. The plan would save almost ten billion dollars a year by shutting down a program that gives banks wasteful subsidies on student loans, and devote the savings to Pell Grants to help students pay for college. Unfortunately, studentloancompanylobbyists are pressuring Congress to save their wasteful subsidies at the expense of students and their families.
Join with Campus Progress: Choose students over banks, because we need a better future, and because we are fed up with banks taking billions from taxpayers for no good reason.
Funding our Future is a campaign to pass a progressive federal budget for 2010 and ensure that our nation.s key economic choices invest in our education, spark reform of our health care system, and address climate change through cap and trade and clean energy investments. Click here for more info.
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A new report by the Project on Student Debt shows that an alarming number of students are taking out private student loans, which often come with high and variable interest rates and few borrower protections, before exhausting federal sources of funding.
The pressure from the American public may sway the debate over health care reform taking place in Congress right now. According to the latest 
The poll found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.
There will be another 
It’s Graduation season -a time for celebration. Yet many college graduates this year may be celebrating with a few significant concerns hovering in the back of their minds, such as entering a depleting job market (According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers only 20% of 2009 graduates who have applied for jobs have been hired, compared to 51% in 2007), or facing a crushing burden of student loan debt (The average amount of debt a student graduates with is a hefty $20,000, according to the Project on Student Debt), or the final concern of graduating into the new status of being completely uninsured.