A revolt is growing as more people refuse to pay back student loans

[n2doc]

Remember those 15 people who refused to repay their federal student loans? Their “debt strike” has picked up 85 more disgruntled borrowers willing to jeopardize their financial future to pressure the government into forgiving their student loans.

And the government is starting to listen. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has invited the group to Washington on Tuesday to discuss their demand for debt cancellation. Although the CFPB doesn’t have the power to grant that request, the agency’s overture shows that the strike is being taken seriously.

It’s been a month since 15 former students of the failing for-profit giant Corinthian Colleges said they would not pay a dime of their student loans because the school broke the law.

Corinthian, which runs Everest Institute, Wyotech and Heald College, has become the poster child for the worst practices in the for-profit education sector, including high loan defaults and dubious programs. Clouded by allegations of deceptive marketing and lying to the government about its graduation rates, Corinthian lost its access to federal funds last year, forcing the company to sell or close its schools.
more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/03/30/a-revolt-is-growing-as-more-people-refuse-to-pay-back-student-loans/?tid=sm_fb

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. Time for a student debt jubilee!

[scscholar]

2. Why do these banks feel entittled to be paid for our hard work?

Sounds like slavery.

[Blanks]

3. Let's see...

Go to war in the Middle East or do something about student loans. Really a tough choice, but I'm thinking student loans would benefit more people.

[Initech]

14. Going to war in the Middle East only benefits two people: the 1%, and military contractors.

[grasswire]

4. the gov will just take it out of their social security, eventually

Already, that is being done. Social security can be garnished to the point leaving the recipient $750 per month remaining to live on, for the purpose of old student loans.

[former9thward]

6. Student loans can only take 15%.

So if that is the only debt you have then most people would have more than $750. Sometimes people have other debts or back taxes and with everything combined you can't get lower than $750.

[metalbot]

10. In the context of this specific protest, the students may win

The issue is that these students were essentially swindled by a for profit school that was under investigation by the DoJ, but which at the same time was handing out loans via the Department of Education. They are going to work their way through the courts arguing that the government is culpable here for continuing to funnel tax payer money through an organization that they knew was corrupt.

As a general rule, you're clearly correct. Student loans are largely unforgiveable.

[NightWatcher]

13. They'll even take it out of your disability benefits (there's a benefit to being disabled??)

The bloodsuckers are getting my last thousand I owe that way, but I'll be done this summer.

[rhett o rick]

5. k & r. Thanks for posting. nm

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. It's difficult to think of college and the financing of it as anything other than a 1%-er scam

Increasing levels of education creates improved productivity. This productivity goes to capital and no one else. The cost of that education goes to the workers and no one else.

College is a great mechanism to externalize the costs of increased private profit.

[Adrahil]

12. Can you clarify? College has been great for me!

Otoh when I went to school, it really WAS possible to work your way through a state university. Now.... Not so much.

[Downwinder]

8. The loaners were betting on future assets. With their

usury and collection policies they kill the possibility of future assets.

[greytdemocrat]

9. Don't take the loans.

If you have no intention of paying them back.

This makes my blood boil a bit. I took out a lot of loans
and paid every damn dime back. It took 10 years but
I paid them back and was never late.

[aspirant]

11. Good for you

Now start picketing and screaming at all those filthy corporations that filed bankruptcy and paid back pennies on the dollar on their loans. Jumping on these youthful students and not a word about these ruthless corporatists makes my blood boil too.