Political Quotes

“I just left a meeting a few feet away from here with the leaders of some of the American colleges and universities. They came to brief us on a challenge we face across America that we had better be aware of. It is the growing student loan debt. Just in October 1 year ago, student loan debt in America surpassed credit card debt. It is now $1 trillion. More and more students are going more deeply into debt, which many of them can never repay. Student loan debt is different than other debt. It is different because one cannot discharge it in bankruptcy, which means it is a debt they will carry for a lifetime. Imagine someone who is 19, 20 years old, that they have been told as long as they have been on this Earth education is the key to the future, and they are sitting across the table from a financial counselor who says they have been accepted at this college. All they need to do is sign up right here for a loan. What is the natural instinct? Of course, it is to sign on the dotted line: I am doing what I was told to do; I am going to the best school I can get into; I am going to borrow the money and make it happen and my life will be successful and I will pay the money back. The formula is right, but there are problems. If they drop out of school, they end up with no diploma, just debt. If they go to a bad school, they end up with a worthless diploma and debt.…”