Gretchen Smith’s Post

Your accomplishments, under the circumstances, are admirable. However, you had a feasible path. Not everyone does. There are people who have experienced domestic violence, racism, rape, one parent and poverty, and even no parents, debilitating medical conditions. About 25 years ago, I came across relatives previously unknown. One of them was deceased but she was raped at a Naval Air Base in NJ while excelling as a budding computer scientist. She was threatened with retaliation. Her daughter grew up in foster homes, where one of the foster parents neglected her. Then, her children, in a third generation of poverty, could not go to college because they could not close the donut hole. I will say something else here. There is a 90-year old man about 20 feet from me right now. He fought in the Korean War in active combat. He is one of the most humble, hard working persons I know. He never was able to go to college, having grown up in abject poverty in a coal mining town, but would happily help others. He would never use his service to criticize others or trivialize their challenges through generalization. We need affordable education for more people. We also need to put ourselves in other's shoes. Heart AND mind.

So your solution to obtaining college without student debt is to join a tax funded organization that will pay for it? What's the difference between my tax dollars paying for veterans' education and the government forgiving private student debt? Nothing. Both are funded by the government. We both volunteered for something. Mine was non-government funded with a false promise of a well-paid career to a 17-year-old. My intentions were never to have the government forgive my debt, your intentions were to have the government pay for all of yours. I have served my country as a teacher and law enforcement officer and not once has the government payed for anything I've obtained. Every veteran friend I have receives a living allowance, education allowance, and/or Healthcare provisions, all paid for by taxpayers and for what? Because they were a mechanic or supply room manager on a base for 2 years?! That's a long way of saying they volunteered for a welfare program that came with a temporary job.

So what you're saying is that I paid for your tuition with my tax dollars, alongside your salary, your health benefits, and your pension - all because you opted to participate in state-sponsored activities that many citizens do not support (such as the failed "war on terror"), and valued the potential harm to your physical and/or mental health and wellbeing as a lower risk than the credit ding you could get. The problem is not student debt per se, but the profit-oriented business practices that cause higher education to cost exponentially more than anywhere in Europe and the predatory practices of student loan lenders. No need to pooh pooh people who came from humble backgrounds and could only attain their degrees through signing up for a predatory loan.

65% of US taxpayers do not have college degrees. Just thinking about that group alone, please answer the simple question: Why should those without a college degree have to pay off the loans of other US taxpayers who decided to buy a college education on credit? Here's another one. Why should the mere fact that a person owes money on a loan they took for education in 2022, be able to skate on that debt while someone who took exactly the same loan in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and back into eternity, still be burdened with that loan? Here's another one. Will those who paid off their loans in the past, all living persons who did that, and their family members who paid outright for their children's educations, be reimbursed for those past expenses too, or are they just SOL and get to pay for somebody else's education, someone they do not know, too (through taxes)?

The reason we pay for education is the same reason we pay for roads, invest in small businesses, and give tax breaks where needed—to better our country and invest in our economy. In a post industrial society, the best resource to invest in is the human mind. Educating people created jobs and stimulates the economy. Letting people out of lifelong debt allows them to buy homes and cars and use more goods and services. Some of us don’t want to pay for tax breaks for the rich. Some of us don’t want to pay for an overly bloated military that engages in useless wars of choice. Some of us don’t want to pay for schools because we don’t have children (why should I pay for the elementary school down the street when I’m childless?). I like to do it because it makes my country better. I accept it because I’m a grown up who knows I don’t always get what I want.

Uhhhhh, who’s going to tell her that she got college paid for by our taxes like everyone else is asking to get. Normalizing “you have to risk sacrificing your life to get education if you’re poor” is not a good message.

I almost got through college without student loans, however,I went back to school to pursue my teaching credentials. At that time you had to have both your multiple subject teaching credential and your special education teaching credential in order to be a special education teacher. It took me four years to obtain both. Student teaching during the day, and lesson planning until 11:00 pm at night didn’t leave me very much time to work, so I ended up getting student loans. While still in school, I had my first two children. (At 34, I didn’t want to put off having a family.) My husband was a small farmer, and his business fell upon hard times. I began working full time and was the only one supporting our family. After our third child, my husband was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer). Five years later, it came back with a vengeance. It had metastasized throughout his entire body. He lived for six months longer. I took leave from my job to take care of him. I was able to get a short forbearance on my student loan. Unfortunately, it went into repayment status the week my husband died. Sallie Mae started hounding me for payments. I explained that my husband had just died, and had not been buried yet. They didn’t care.

While I stand with you as a fellow service member. I cannot fully agree. The military does not pay fully for your College tuition in all cases. Also if you plan on pursuing graduate degrees, then not only do grants stop but a lot of times military and government assistance stops as well. Then please do not get a degree and then get told you do not have any experience in your field to get a job. Having student loans are not a handout. But here is the real question. Why is the Greatest Nation on earth not finding ways to educate without all of these financial hardships that are placed upon us just so we can be viable assets to OUR Country? Military or not ALL Americans should have the equal opportunity to a education that leaves them without debt.

I believe student loans are a modern form of indentured servitude. They are just another way for the rich to take advantage of the poor. My children have learned from my mistake. My daughter lived with me and worked her way through nursing school. She is now an RN. My oldest son has decided not to pursue college, and is working in a bakery. My youngest son is transferring to college in the fall. He has worked and saved money. (No student loans so far.) My middle son is taking classes, at the community college, and avoiding student loans. I hope things change in our country someday, and that people who pursue a higher education are encouraged, not punished. If the military can spend $6,722 on a single coffee maker, America can certainly put more money towards education.

In reading many of the comments I find that the majority of those were unwilling to serve their country and belittle those who have done so. I am not surprised. They profess that they support those who desire student loan deferral, but don't believe that your commitment to protecting them and the nation an equitable exchange which warrants funding. Very much like the politicians who found ways to skirt military service and protect their children from the same while seeking to limit benefits for those who take up the yoke of protecting them. I am certain they would also condemn my receiving an external degree, based on training received in the military and education I paid for, without using my educational benefits, while in the service of the country.