WATERVILLE — A graduate of Colby College has given the school $2.5 million, which will be dedicated entirely to financial aid for Maine students.
In a news release from Colby, the college announced that Steve Ford, who graduated from the college in 1968 and is a native of Gardiner, has committed to providing the support for Maine students at Colby, where he received financial aid and has family ties.
College students from rural areas are moving to big cities for higher wages to help pay off their student loans, according to new research from the Federal Reserve.
Why it matters: A "rural brain drain" has been pulling college-educated people out of rural America and into urban areas, deepening an educational and political divide that is increasingly coming to define the country.
Americans older than 60 are saddled by student loan debt worth a whopping $86 billion — a figure that rose 161% between 2010 and 2017, the largest increase out of any age group, the WSJ reports.
Some student loan borrowers will get another chance to qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Congress has set aside $350 million to help fix what lawmakers have called a "glitch" in the enrollment process.
Teachers, social workers, public defenders and others who work for the government or non-profits can qualify for student loan forgiveness after making 10 years of payments. But many who thought they were on track for forgiveness have since found out they were in a repayment plan that makes them ineligible for debt relief.
I am sure that numerous readers of this column have already seen articles about how the Trump Administration may make it easier to discharge student loans in bankruptcy. Many of us already know that student debt is extremely difficult to erase through bankruptcy. This, of course makes sense, since student loans are typically not backed by any type of collateral, so it seems reasonable that this debt would be difficult to discharge.
The new chairman of the Federal Reserve questioned why struggling borrowers can’t discharge their student loans in bankruptcy.
“Alone among all kinds of debt, we don’t allow student loan debt to be discharged in bankruptcy,” Jerome Powell told members of the Senate Banking Committee Thursday. “I’d be at a loss to explain why that should be the case.”
If you have some extra cash at the end of the month and are carrying burdensome student loan debt, you might be considering paying down those loans early. But in some cases, it may be better to keep paying the loans according to your current payment schedule. Here are some examples of when it's smarter to put your money elsewhere.
Amid America’s colossal student debt problem, an Ivy League school is providing an example of how institutions can help.
Beginning next school year, Brown University will eliminate all student loans in its undergraduate financial aid packages, replacing them with scholarships. Following a $30 million fundraising effort launched in September, Brown administrators announced this week that 2,087 donors contributed toward the goal, and that the school—located in Providence, Rhode Island—plans to raise $90 million more to sustain the scholarship giving.
Late last year, congressional Republicans passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut, which delivered the lion’s share of its benefits to the wealthy and corporations. The GOP did not justify this policy on the grounds that all corporate shareholders and trust-fund hipsters deserved to have their wealth increased. Rather, the party argued that, however one felt about making the rich richer, the tax cuts would ultimately benefit all Americans by increasing economic growth and lowering unemployment.
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The road to success is always under construction
– Lily Tomlin
“What I would like to do... once I take care of all my kids' student loans, is buy a red 1965 Mustang and fully restore it.”
– Mike Quigley
“This would be a much better world if more married couples were as deeply in love as they are in debt.”
– Earl Wilson
"There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt."
– P. T. Barnum
"Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans."
– Robert Reich
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
– Marie Curie
"If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going."
