Besides the standard, just make payments option. A national Civil Service program where "kids" with college debt can enroll in, to work off their debt. My rough idea is for kids who may not land a job right out of college, they can enlist in this program where they will do work someplace around the country. Example, Say there is a city destroyed by a tornado, we take a crew of these "kids" to help with cleanup. Once done in one spot they move on to another maybe helping where there is a forest fire. There always seems to be a few "disasters" that could use some physical labor. Would have to provide a fair compensation level. Maybe 15K for 6 months which would be divided 5K pocket spending money, 10K at the end of the 6 months which will go directly to pay down their student debt. Since room and board would be provided along with medical I think that would be more than fair compensation. What do you think?
The kids owe their debtors. The US federal government will pay those kids to work...IE Me. Why am I involved with another persons college debt?
we already have the National Guard to handle all the disasters. Why would we give the job to younger, less experienced, smart kids with no muscles?
Is it really any different than paying military members? They are being paid to work. And they would be paying back, government backed loans.
Could work with the National Guard. National Guard is controlled by individual states so they can't move state to state, and they there has to be an official disaster declaration for them to be mobilized. This could supplement where disasters haven't been declared. Doesn't have to just be disaster relief. Could be almost any work we decided.
Or kids could do what I did? Saved up money working as a teenager (had $15k in the bank when I graduated HS). Worked while going to college and borrowed just enough to get by. Got a job in my field after college and made payments until loan was paid off. My plan may not work well for the person who goes to a private college, gets a degree is something like Liberal Arts, and has a 6 figure loan when they graduate.
I know there's a lot of people coming out of college looking for work but them sponging off the government until they find work in their field is a horrible idea. There is an investment an employer makes into every employee and when you have a high turnover rate it cost the employer money to retrain someone. This idea is a money pit of short term employees. Here's a novel idea why don't the college starting junior year make them take internships to make contacts in the field that they are studying nope that doesn't work for all students because some work 2 jobs to pay bills and go to school full time. The only real solution I could see to instead of the 6 months after graduation at little to no interest is to wait until they are making (put some dollar amount here) then start the repayment process.
How about they just go to community college if they can't afford an expensive university? I went to college for 3 years and left with zero debt. I'd much rather they try to leverage internships where a young student goes to college and works at a company that offers student loan repayment benefits/plans. There's far too many kids who go to college but don't have a job, this is weird to me.
I'll give you credit for sure thinking outside the box on this however I have some reservations about the fire or disaster cleanup. One, we have a lot of inmates on fire crews working this type of stuff for their sentence. At least in CA anyway. Two, working fire or disaster clean up can be dangerous without some training and they could end up more of a liability than help. Three, kids now days have a different perspective of work and I don't know how well the participation would be for this. I personally think more kids may be interested in a 3 or 4 year military commitment rather than work on a fire or disaster clean up crew. Anyway it's just my 2 cents. And I have no idea why someone would think they are involved with a police officer's retirement. It's all paid out of city, county or state funds/taxes for serving and protecting the public. That's why your involved if that's how you want to associate it.
When I was in HS, there was also no restrictions on how many hours a minor student could work. I was known to put 50+ hours at a job on top of my regular school week. No way is that allowed today. While it would always be preferred to save up, go to a 2 year campus before tranfering to a 4 year school, and being able to graduate with no debt, reality is that is not what has been happening. I would see nothing wrong with a kid voluntary agreeing to work of the money they borrowed.
How is working for pay sponging off government? By that line of thinking Military members are sponging off government. Don't see where the employer investment comes into play, I wouldn't expect people to be quitting a good job to do this. I would have no problem with college kids taking internships, but it isn't reasonable to think every one of them can. This would just be another option.
Would you have the same reservations for say a national guard member working in close proximity to inmates? A lot of them are of the same age or even younger than a college grad. There are precautions taken when inmates are out working and that wouldn't change. As for the work done, I'm not expecting to drop some college kid out of a plane into a fire. But there is plenty of work that could be done to support and assist the fire crews. Could be helping with road blocks, evacuations, supplying water and food to the actual fire crews. Wouldn't a good way for a kid to learn better work ethic be actually doing some work.
The cost to recruit train and people to run the program is the cost and if it is a government program it's going to cost 3 times what a privately held company would do it for. To train someone to go into a disaster zone is going to take a couple of weeks for a government based plan. A really good way to have grads get jobs right out of college is to have better guidance councilors at the high school and college level to be in touch with reality and what's going on in the free market economy to place these people coming out instead of selling them on career paths that the schools have low attendance in. Private for profit schools are the worst when it comes to this and it cost more for the same education. Smarter harder working kids would also work. The sponging comment comes from people that made poor decisions IE: not picking a path that would give you a job right out of college and having the government give you a job to help pay it back.
Sounds a little like the idea of workfare which I would be much more in favor of than welfare. There's no room in this country for Free secondary education. Not every kid should go to college. Those that choose that path need to realize the commitment they are making, take advantage of the opportunity by choosing a marketable skill, and being financially responsible for the decisions they make. I don't feel that the government(We the people) should in any way be involved with or pay for some liberal arts degree from a major university that costs over $200,000. That's just a plain bad decision by that kid and their parents. Nobody ever bailed me out when I made a poor financial decision, I had to live with the consequence and find away to correct the problem. It's called being an adult and it sucks, but we all have to grow up at some point.
