Federal student loans aren't loans any more, writes Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. President Joe Biden is "establishing a massive government subsidy to the affluent, the nation’s college-goers, and the higher education cartel."
Most college borrowers won't repay their loans, especially those who studied not very lucrative fields, write Michael Brickman and Robert Eitel on RealClearPolicy. SAVE will cost taxpayers "up to $559 billion over 10 years, meaning that it will surpass the size of the mass loan cancellation program nixed by the Supreme Court earlier this year."
Borrowers will pay only 5 percent of income above 225 percent of the federal poverty level under SAVE. Many middle-class college graduates will pay little or nothing.
"The forgiveness triggered by low earnings will provide the greatest reward to the academic programs with the very worst outcomes, highest prices, and least alignment with workforce needs," Brickman and Eitel write. Since students can borrow to cover their living expenses, SAVE will "create a new road to de facto welfare assistance."
SAVE also will end accountability for programs with high default rates, they write. The very, very generous loan forgiveness terms will make default "nearly impossible."
Needy Californians could make $16 an hour for taking community college classes under the state-funded Hire UP pilot program. Former prisoners and foster youth are the top priority, followed by parents on welfare.
Low-income students already pay no tuition, but many work half- or full-time to cover their living expenses. The goal is to make it possible for them to work less, take more classes and earn a useful certificate or degree.
Steven Cesario is taking a full-time load at Santa Rosa Junior College while working 50 hours a week at a local deli. The Hire Up money will let him cut his work hours and get closer to a psychology or social work degree. A formerly incarcerated addict, he hopes to become a sobriety counselor.
Leah Richardson, also a former inmate and recovering addict, will receive nearly $2,000 a month for spending 30 hours a week on community college classes, reports Adam Echelman in Cal Matters. Like Cesario, she hopes to cut her work hours at Safeway and at bakeries to attend college full time.
I'm not sure community college classes will increase their earnings: I'd bet counseling addicts doesn't require a degree and pays no more than $16 an hour. But it's pilot with plans to follow Hire Up participants for five years, so we'll see if the program boosts their upward mobility.
Moral incentives should promote programmes for former inmates that are preferable to recidivism, but less attractive than those available to youth who stay out of jail in the first place, who should get first access to these excessively attractive means to circumvent the major questions doctrine of the Supreme Court, against which, under the Biden-Harris administration's care, the rule of law will be faithlessly evaded.
Well, to be fair, our clueless young with their high school participation degrees need welfare "OJT" --- learning how to game all the welfare/subsidy programs. It's not as easy as you think! Always remember that repetition is the key to learning -- even learning and adjusting to a life on welfare. These days, it's the way we roll. Especially in the Golden State.
And why does the subsidy have to be at the community college level for things like sociology? I can get behind the CTE type of education, where individuals study trades (like automobile or diesel mechanic, etc.), which are in-demand, will become more in-demand, and have a shortage of quality/qualified candidates immediately.
Why does this sound like subsidizing folks for a lifetime of poverty?