Student Loan Crisis - Essay Example

Essay: Student Loan Crisis Today, higher education and attaining bachelor’s degree is a major concern for many American citizens, particularly the youths. Having an access to quality education is very important as it enables students to get a good job that satisfies them and live a comfortable life. This can only be achieved by studying in college, passing the courses, and attaining the degree. However, this is not easy and so many Americans have to get loans to enable them study in college. In the end, they will face risk of paying a very high debt because of the interests they have to pay. Student loans have become the main source of indebtedness in America (). Notably, the U.S government is not doing much in ensuring that students get their degree from college without struggling so much. Personally, I think it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that every American child has an easy access to quality education and this should extends to higher learning. The government should forgive students loans because Americans have a right to achieve their dreams. This paper presents an argument that the U.S government should do more to relieve the student loan burden. Arguably, the U.S government needs to cover tuition payments for students or make higher education free. It should set rules and establish unbreakable laws that enable individuals to obtain the college education. This is necessary because offering free education for students without appropriate conditions will facilitate the emergence of careless generation. That is, if college education is free, there should be fully implemented laws that make it difficult to get college education. For instance, when applying for any major in the University of Kuwait, GPA must be more than 2.50. More so, when applying for government scholarship, GPA above 3.00 is needed. Apart from these strict rules, there is a warning for students in the scholarship program if they get GPA below 2.00, and after getting many warnings during college, the student is suspended and must pay the government all the college costs. Indeed, such rules motivate the students to study harder and try their best to graduate successfully so as to avoid the consequences of these rules. Therefore, the U.S government should establish rules that ensure that students take their studies serious. Moreover, the government should give students free interest loans to enable them overcome struggles they face during loan repayment. That is, it should help American students to get loans to pay their tuition fees with no benefits. This will make it easier for college graduates to pay back their loan and escape the loan burden. After college, it is very hard to get a good paying job immediately they finish college as most of them are graduating from college into the worst jobs and they have records of student debt, and this makes it hard for them to pay their debts in a shorter time (Jackson). The student loan becomes a burden for many graduates especially those who enter lower-paying jobs, suffer setbacks like unemployment, or fail to successfully finish their degrees. Because of these, they find it very hard to repay the loan and leave their lives freely after college. The debt constricts normal life events such as moving from parent’s home, and marrying (Jackson). Students have other priorities they need to pay such as health insurance cover which even makes it harder to repay their loans. Therefore, giving students the opportunity to get free higher education and attain bachelor’s degree will help them live better life. Further, the government should also set a limit for individuals who are interested in getting free education, for instance, they should only pay for colleges that are not every expensive. Different colleges cost differently, some are expensive and some are affordable. Currently, the charges of higher education are snowballing more than even health-care costs (Vedder). Therefore, the government has to set maximum limit for costs of college to enables students be aware of which colleges they can apply for. It will be unfair for the government to pay for some students in expensive colleges and some students in cheap colleges. The government needs to set a certain grade to be attained by students who wish to get free college education. Those students who are the best should be given chance to apply for top universities that cost higher than others did. The government needs to recognize the importance of higher education and acknowledge the great financial burden that it places on many American students and their families. Therefore, the government need to ensure that higher education is more affordable to allow all Americans to have easy access to quality education that will enable them to make significant contributions in a global economy. It should come up with a way to make it easier for many college graduates to pay off their college tuition debt. A policy that would reduce student-loan borrowing is necessary. Individuals should be allowed to limit repayments of student loans based on their monthly incomes. On the contrary, opponents of student debt forgiveness state that the government should not be involved in relieving the student-loan burden and leave this matter to the students and their families because they are the ones who are responsible for settling such debts. They argue that students are responsible for loan repayment terms to which they agreed. More so, they claim that student loan program is not effective as it has failed to achieve one of its main goal, that is, increasing economic opportunity for the poor (Vedder). I completely disagree with those who believe that students are responsible for what they agreed because the only reason they sign these terms is because they have no other options. Therefore, a good number of college graduates have taken loans to enable them pay for their education. Most of them face financial crisis because of the huge debt after paying their tuition using student loan. Reducing the burden of student loan is an effective way to enhance the economy and so the government should develop and implement policies that make is easier for students to handle the debt situation. Arguably, forgiving student debt, these students should be dischargeable in bankruptcy and will enable lenders to be more careful with high interest rates and give out fewer loans. This will help in addressing the fundamental causes of student debt and rising tuition costs in the U.S. Students should be encouraged to consider repaying their loans before they increase to a level in which they cannot handle. Government reforms should also put pressure on the colleges to control their cost to a more affordable cost to enable individuals attain higher education. Works Cited Jackson, Jesse. We Bail Out Banks, But Not Desperate Students. Chicago SunTimes. 2011. Web. 5 Dec 2014. Vedder, Richard. Forgive Student Loans? National Review Online. 2011. Web. 5 Dec 2014. Zaller, Robert. Higher Education’s Coming Crisis. 2012. Web. 5 Dec 2014. Read More