Salon.com > Marian Wang

College debt is completely out of control

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:02:00 +0000

It's been a year of eye-popping records for student debt. Outstanding student loan debt surpassed credit card debt, with one government estimate pegging total student loan debt at more than $1 trillion.

Such staggering figures drew renewed attention to the fact that rising higher education costs and falling government support for state colleges and universities has burdened individual students and their families with immense debt — all at a time when new graduates face anemic prospects for getting a decent job.

Why student loans are just like mortgages

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 13:01:00 +0000

The parallels between the mortgage market and the student loan industry have been frequently noted. Both involve big borrowing and have a history of lax underwriting by lenders. But the two are also strikingly similar in another way: When it comes to both mortgages and student debt, the servicers, or companies that handle loan payments, sometimes add roadblocks and give struggling borrowers the runaround.

That's the main takeaway from two recent reports by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the independent agency created by the financial reform law passed in 2010.

Servicers have misapplied payments, given borrowers bad advice, and reported incorrect information to credit bureaus, according to one of the reports. The findings were based on the agency's recent tracking of student loan complaints, focusing on the companies who handle private student loans.

Why are student financial aid letters so confusing?

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:43:00 +0000

The financial aid award letters that colleges send to prospective students can be confusing: Many mix grants, scholarships and loans all under the heading of "Award," "Financial Assistance," or "Offered Financial Aid." Some schools also suggest loans in amounts that families can't afford.

Take Parent Plus loans, a federal program that allows families to take out as much as they need, after other aid is applied, to pay for their children's college costs. As we recently reported with the Chronicle of Higher Education, Plus loans are remarkably easy to get. With minimal underwriting and no assessment of whether parents can actually afford the loans, families can end up overburdened by debt.

Are student loans the new subprime mortgages?

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 14:00:00 +0000

More than a decade after Aurora Almendral first set foot on her dream college campus, she and her mother still shoulder the cost of that choice.

Almendral had been accepted to New York University in 1998, but even after adding up scholarships, grants, and the max she could take out in federal student loans, the private university — among nation's costliest — still seemed out of reach. One program filled the gap: Aurora's mother, Gemma Nemenzo, was eligible for a different federal loan meant to help parents finance their children's college costs. Despite her mother's modest income at the time — about $25,000 a year as a freelance writer, she estimates — the government quickly approved her for the loan. There was a simple credit check, but no check of income or whether Nemenzo, a single mom, could afford to repay the loans.

Nemenzo took out $17,000 in federal parent loans for the first two years her daughter attended NYU. But the burden soon became too much. With financial strains mounting, Almendral — who had promised to repay the loans herself —withdrew after her sophomore year. She later finished her degree at the far less expensive Hunter College, part of the public City University of New York, and went on to earn a Fulbright scholarship.

Grieving father struggles to pay dead son’s student loans

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:28:00 +0000

A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling.

"They would say, 'We don't care what happened with your son, you have to pay us,'" recalled Reynoso, a gardener from Palmdale, Calif.

Reynoso's son, Freddy, had been the pride of his family and the first to go to college. In 2005, after Freddy was accepted to Boston's Berklee College of Music, his father co-signed on his hefty private student loans, making him fully liable should Freddy be unwilling or unable to repay them. It was no small decision for a man who made just over $21,000 in 2011, according to his tax returns.

"As a father, you'll do anything for your child,” Reynoso, an American citizen originally from Mexico, said through a translator.

Now, he's suffering a Kafkaesque ordeal in which he's hounded to repay loans that funded an education his son will never get to use — loans that he has little hope of ever paying off. While Reynoso's wife, Sylvia, is studying to be a beautician, his gardening is currently the sole source of income for the family, which includes his 18-year-old daughter, Evelyn.

U.S. lawmaker supporting terrorist group? Rep. Peter King isn’t the first

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:34:00 +0000

The Republican lawmaker who has deemed WikiLeaks to be a terrorist organization and is holding hearings this week on the dangers of home-grown Islamic radicalization has found himself on the defense in recent days.

Yesterday Rep. Peter King was mocked on The Daily Show, and today he's in the New York Times for his longtime support of the Irish Republican Army -- which killed hundreds of civilians in attacks against the British. While acknowledging that "terrorism is terrorism," the New York politician made no apologies for his support of the IRA, telling the Times that "the I.R.A. never attacked the United States. And my loyalty is to the United States."

Government reports find 92 percent of nursing homes employ convicts

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:03:00 +0000

Though most states require nursing homes to conduct criminal background checks for prospective hires, 92 percent employ at least one worker with a criminal conviction, according to a report released today by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services.

About 5 percent of nursing home workers -- or one out of every 20 -- had at least one conviction, according to the report, which took a random sample of 260 nursing homes certified by Medicare and ran FBI background checks on their workers.

State rules differ regarding background checks: 43 states require nursing homes to perform background checks against state records, ten of those require an additional FBI background check, and eight states don't require background checks at all.

The rules also differ on what types of crimes disqualify workers. The report noted that of the workers with convictions, 44 percent had committed property crimes such as theft, vandalism or writing bad checks. Some 16 percent had drug-related crimes, and 13 percent had committed crimes against people, including sexual offenses.

Where things stand: U.S. imposes sanctions on Libya, says “It’s time for Qaddafi to go”

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:01:00 +0000

When we updated our overview of Middle East crackdowns last week, the situation in Libya was still in a state of flux, and the United States had vowed to "hold the Libyan government fully responsible" but had not yet announced any concrete steps to do so. Much has changed since -- here's a look at what the United States has said, has done and is still considering.

What the United States has said:

The United States has begun calling publicly for Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi to step down. The first sign of this came over the weekend, when on a call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Obama stated that "when a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," according to a readout of the call.

The latest on crackdowns in the Mideast and U.S. responses

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:02:00 +0000

This story was originally published on ProPublica.

As protests -- and crackdowns -- have been rippling through the Middle East, the U.S. response has varied by country.

We've been tracking what's happening and how the United States has responded in our overview of Middle East crackdowns. Here's an updated version with the latest on developments in the region and how U.S. strategy is playing out:

LIBYA

Relationship status with United States: De-friended
Libya and the United States have been in a slow thaw over the last decade. The United States restored full diplomatic relations with its government in 2006, after the country showed signs of cooperation in the areas of nonproliferation and counterterrorism, though the United States has long considered the country's dictator, Col. Muammar Qaddafi, to be a bit strange and unpredictable, describing him as "notoriously mercurial" in U.S. diplomatic cables (more background on the U.S. relationship with Libya).

As U.S. rebuilt ties with Libya, human rights concerns took a back seat

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:24:00 +0000

This story was originally published on ProPublica.

The brutality in Libya has prompted the State Department to issue several statements in recent days strongly condemning the Libyan government and calling the bloodshed “completely unacceptable” -- though it stopped short of threatening sanctions.

The country’s dictator, Col. Muammar Qaddafi, said on Tuesday that the protesters who have been killed “deserved to die,” and he vowed to fight “until the last drop of my blood.”

Months before brutal attacks in Bahrain, U.S. praised the ally’s progress

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 18:14:00 +0000

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the tiny island nation of Bahrain for the first time in December, she made headlines here in the U.S. for one thing: An attendee at one of the events asked whether she'd run for president again. She said no. At that same event, Clinton also got another question that received far less attention. A member of Bahrain's parliament asked whether the country's decline in the areas of human rights, democracy, and civil society should prompt the U.S. to review its alliance with the country:

My question is related to the declines in many areas. When Bahrain was chosen as a strategic ally to United States, we were in the thick in term of many areas, in term of civil society, in term of human rights, in term of democracy. A lot of declines happened in the last period, and you are aware about all these things. Many people are arrested, lawyers and human rights activists. Sometime we feel that there is no, let's say, red lines or constraints between United States and their allies. The situation was perfect, but now it is changed. So my question is: Do you review the policies of your allies from time to time, and how can we see our relation with United States as an opportunity for, let's say, a growth for the democracy?

Overview of Middle East crackdowns and the (varying) U.S. responses

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:59:00 +0000

As protests -- and crackdowns -- have been rippling through the Middle East, the U.S. response has varied by country.

For instance, while the Obama administration has been vocal about events in Iran, it has been relatively quiet about violence by pro-government forces in Yemen. Here's a brief look at what's happening in some key countries -- and the U.S.'s response in each.

YEMEN

Relationship status with United States: Frenemies In a press briefing last week, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated, Our relationship with the government of Yemen is incredibly important in addressing the counterterrorism threat that exists there. As WikiLeaks cables revealed last fall, the country's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has allowed secret U.S. air strikes against suspected al-Qaeda militants and covered them up, claiming they were conducted by the Yemeni military. However, some analysts have said Yemen is playing a double game -- diverting U.S. aid to fight domestic rebels instead of going after al-Qaeda.