As I have always told my students: never go into debt for a degree with negative payback.
If you are getting a STEM degree, then maybe take out loans if you have to. But even then, if the student doesn’t graduate, it’s a bad decision.
And DeVos is right: college isn’t for everyone. A Bachelor’s Degree should not be new high school diploma.
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Tuesday that ballooning student debt has caused a “crisis in higher education,” and that the traditional path to college might not be the best choice for all students.
DeVos made the comments in Atlanta at a training conference for the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid division, which oversees student loans awarded by the federal government. The department released a text of her remarks.
“Our higher-ed system is the envy of the world, but if we as a country do not make important policy changes in the way we distribute, administer and manage federal student loans, the program on which so many students rely will be in serious jeopardy,” she said.
DeVos said the federal government holds $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loans, a threefold increase from 2007 and a $500 billion increase from 2013. She said Federal Student Aid’s loan portfolio now accounts for nearly 10 percent of America’s national debt.
She blamed the Obama administration and its 2010 takeover of federal student loans, which stopped private banks from giving out federally subsidized student loans. DeVos says the decision encouraged colleges to hike their tuition rates.
“When the federal government loans more taxpayer money, schools raise their rates,” she said. “FSA financing accounts for 80 percent of the actual tuition and fee revenue received by schools.”