While diving into the new Credit CARD Act I asked, “what ever happened to legislation making more student loans available directly from the government?”
And the last I heard, the lobbyists for major private student lenders were stalling that one. Well Obama isn’t going let this slip though the cracks. Our President is still working to overhaul of federal student loan programs. By combining the new student loan programs with Democratic Healthcare reform into an expedited budget reconciliation bill (or as like to call it, the SUPER DUPER REFORM bill), it can be passed with a majority vote instead of the "necessary" 60% or more vote.
The bill would end government payments to private, commercial student lenders, leaving the government to lend directly to students. It would also redirect billions of dollars to expand the Pell grant program for low-income students, and to pay for other education initiatives.
[And] federal education officials warned on Thursday that if Congress failed to act, millions of students might see their Pell grants cut by 60 percent.
There are two main reasons to package these programs together. One: it saves the financial student loan bill, that many believe wouldn’t have a chance without the health care reform. Two: it attempts to persuade health care reform opposition by offering aid to their students. Some senators who have strong ties to private lenders are now in a sticky situation.
This loan reform will help stimulate the government; they will be making money off of each loan they receive while not charging crazy interest rates. An estimated “$87 billion [will be saved] by eliminating payments to private lenders “and that savings could go towards more Pell Grants. If this bill passes it assures Americans that their government is on their side, and wants to help them stay out of major debt from health care cost and student loans.
This is an extreme relief for college students like me, who are stressing with how next year's tuition will be paid. If this passes students struggling to get jobs over the summer, working during school, and filling out endless pages for grants and scholarship can take a breath.
A few years ago I secretly dreamed about working on Wall Street. I used to picture myself in a pinstripe business suit strutting past the Charging Bull before the opening bell. Working there seemed cool. It was like working for the company that makes the blackberry – before the iphone…or working for Enron – before the bankruptcy.
On the March 4th Day of Action, colleges around California and across America joined in solidarity with protests, walk-outs, teach-ins, and marches against major budget cuts in public education. This is far from just a California UC system march; k-12 schools and 4-year and 2-year colleges in New York, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota all participated totaling in 33 cities and over 125 events across the nation.
Every level of education has been affected by these budget cuts. K-12 schools are receiving less funding and firing more teachers. Community colleges will be turning more than 20,000 students away. Tuition has drastically risen at UC’s and California State Universities are crowing classrooms and furloughing professors.
Here are some reactions from every perspective:
Students have varied opinions. UC Berkeley’s the Daily Californian reports, "For me, it is about the symbolic statement-I don't expect anything to come out of this," said Jackie Moore, a UC Berkeley junior, as she marched to Oakland. "We need to say we value public education."
High school students explain how important it is for them participate. "I'm only 16, I can't vote, I don't really have a say in the politics of it all, as much as I would want to," said Hope Schwartz, a sophomore at Oakland Technical High School who joined the march. "This is the only thing I can do."
Elected officials responded to the protestors in California, “a spokesman for Schwarzenegger said he wanted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that higher education received more funding than the state's prison system”. State Senator Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo said, “In all my 20 years in elected office, this is the largest rally I have ever seen; I've never seen a gathering where they just take over the entire Civic Center area"
A lot of the media perpetuates the negatives of the protest. The students who shut down the freeways in Oakland, CA and in Santa Cruz, CA. The window some students broke at a few universities and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee protesters who threw punches and ice chunks. UC Davis had some violent reaction from the local police, and arrest were made nationwide. The media raises the question, were these protests effective? And how do we measure an effective protest? Instead let’s look and the solidarity formed across the country on all levels of education. March 4th was a Day of Action, the multitude of support and media exposure. Let’s see if any politicians actually hear the thousands of student who screamed to “Save Our Schools”.
CALIFORNIA- A UC Berkeley professor who’s outside California’s State Capitol said there’s a positive energy infusing today’s protests after a week of tumult within the system.
UCB School of Education Professor Ingrid Seyer-Ochi is at the corner of L Street and 11th just outside California’s State Capitol, participating in today’s rally to defend and advocate for public education. She’s surrounded by a crowd she describes as mostly made up of college students, faculty and some families with young children, carrying signs like “Learning is not a Luxury,” “UC Incorporated,” and “Please Fund My School.” The speeches so far have mostly focused on fee increases and access to higher education, Seyer-Ochi says, with less attention to K-12.
Ochi says her ride up to the Capitol—financed by an individual donor who signed on to back 15 buses from Berkeley to Sacramento—had a “high energy feel,” with students and faculty mingling freely, not always knowing which was which. Faculty members were asked to wear nametags so they’re easily identifiable once they join the crowd, and many are wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the California Faculty Association and California Teachers Association alongside slogans of their own.
Faculty, students, and supporters of California public education will be out in force at massive statewide protests for the March 4 Day of Action to Save Public Education. A 21-year-old UC Berkeley student from a working class San Francisco Bay Area family says local communities aren't represented at the university.
It’s not what you think. Yes, the term “hustle” can mean making money illegally. But it also has deep roots in the African American community. Being a hustler is to earn money on any product or service you can offer.
“I see people with jobs hustling; working full time, but on the side braiding hair, or selling knives,” Cheney says, from his South Los Angeles neighborhood. “The hustle only lasts for so long. I’ve seen certain people with the same hustle go out make hundreds of dollars a day and (other people) only make 10 dollars.”
Twenty six year old, Cheney, hustles his music instrumentals. He needs the money to pay rent and tuition. Cheney is a senior at Cal State Northridge. His homework these days, however, consists of only one thing: finding a job.
“From the Valley to LA, I’ve been filling out applications wherever I can find a job,” Cheney says. “I know people with Masters and BAs and they can’t find work.”
Cheney definitely has his work cut out for him. Even before the recession, African Americans experienced higher rates of unemployment than any other group in the nation. But the wounded economy has worsened the job situation. The national unemployment rate hovers around ten percent, while the rate for blacks is at 16.5 percent.
The issue caught the attention of the Congressional Black Caucus. It wants President Obama to do more for the African American community. CBC Chairwoman, Barbara Lee (D-Ca) released a statement this month in response to a January jobs report.
Aired on American Public Media's Marketplace Money on February 27, 2010
Rachel's story is the last in a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace. How has the recession influenced students dreaming about careers in the finance industry?
Right next to the American Stock Exchange building is the High School of Economics and Finance. And for most of the students at this school, Wall Street isn't just their neighbor—it’s their potential employer. Like senior Makeeda Loney.
Makeeda Loney: I do like to make money and the aspect of making money interested me. So I thought maybe if I came here, I would learn more about the business world, which I have.
More than 800 students attend this New York public high school. The school doesn’t keep numbers about how many students end up on Wall Street. But they have academic requirements to prepare students for a career in finance. Like taking a class every year on topics ranging from macroeconomics to personal finance. Hiro Shinohara is a former stock trader who teaches social studies. He says most students at the school don’t come from a wealthy background.
Hiro Shinohara: In fact 75% of our students come from homes where yearly income less than 15,000 a year... they're barely surviving, these are families that are going pay check to pay check. And with the recession, I think there's no question it's hitting these families the hardest.
So why do these students want to enter a world that in some ways hurt theirs? A lot of families have watched their savings evaporate over the last two years.
Hiro Shinohara: I think students are a little worried, and that stress and concerns about money that perhaps they have at home, that they bring to school, as teachers we certainly feel that.
But he says these students have something that a lot of young people don’t have: the school has helped them develop the confidence to ask questions about money, about the economy, about the direction of Wall Street. Take sophomore Shatiek Gatlin. He talks a lot about money with his family.
Shatiek Gaitlin: I think it's more me thinking they could have done something better or me even speaking out and saying 'we don't really need this' or you could have handled that situation with buying another pair of shoes, or whatever the case may be, a little different.
He’s says that the school has made him smart about money—smart enough to express his opinion to his parents…though they don’t always listen to his advice.
Shatiek Gaitlin: Sometimes they do consider, but the majority of the time, you know, they're the parents so they're going to do what they want regardless.
Sounds like a complaint that parents usually have about teenagers. But the students here seem to enjoy having those adult conversations. Plus, they say the school has prepared them for life in this economy. And Senior Makeeda Loney says she knows how to live within her means.
Makeeda Loney: I used to spend all the money that I got, but now I’ve learned to save half and spend half, so I always have some backup in case I need to do something else. I actually do have it hidden in my room in cash, but it's in a place I don't want to say right now (laughs).
Makeeda says the school didn't just help her look at herself, it helped her look at Wall Street, too. It gave her an intimate look at Wall Street’s collapse. And the loss of jobs and income that followed. Makeeda says she saw the effects on her subway ride to school.
Makeeda Loney: I do notice the people that walk around every day when I come to school on the train, like I do notice that they have their nice suits and their nice briefcases but I also do notice… freshman year it was a bit more packed than coming up to senior year now. That even though I leave at the same time, it’s not as crowded as it used to be.
But she and her fellow students say they are still excited about careers in business. Just listen to senior Gabriel Muñoz. Ask him about the future of Wall Street and you’ll hear the confidence in his voice….
Gabriel Munoz: People are still going to make money on Wall Street... President Barack Obama gave a State of the Union where he stated banks need more regulation, and definitely I agree with that. We can't make the same mistakes... Every time we have a crisis it will get worse and we'll probably need to bail out more banks so by changing the rules and how the game is played hopefully will get things back on track and get this economy running.
Gabriel says after everything that’s happened, he still wants a job on a trading floor as a stock broker. And he wouldn't trade that future for anything.
Gabriel Munoz: Every single time I get off the train and I see Wall Street, I just get the chills. Cause it's amazing to walk through this area.
In New York, I'm Rachel Krantz for Marketplace Money.
Aired on American Public Media’s Marketplace on February 26th, 2010. Lauren's commentary is part of a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace. Has the economic downturn changed the way college graduates feel about Wall Street?
A few years ago I secretly dreamed about working on Wall Street. I used to picture myself in a pinstripe business suit strutting past the Charging Bull before the opening bell.
Working there seemed cool. It was like working for the company that makes the blackberry – before the iphone…or working for Enron – before the bankruptcy.
I remember one day. It was August of 2009 right before the crash. I was interning for a big non profit. I went out to meet up with some friends who all worked in the same field as I did…and then I met a girl who was working in a whole other world…She had an internship with Goldman Sachs.
I tried not to choke on my coffee. Goldman Sachs was my Lady Gaga. She was working on some big corporate buyout --- but of course, she couldn’t say much – the information was “classified.” She got to work at 7:00 AM each day, and from the way she talked about stock analysis I imagined she knew how to use Bloomberg analytics like an elementary school calculator. To me, she was the queen bee, and I was just one of her workers.
Then the bailouts happened… And I changed my mind about Wall Street like that.
I remember watching the bailouts and bonuses fiasco from my desk with the other interns on TV and yelling at the screen. We were furious – I mean red in the face. Those companies seemed to throw around money like paper airplanes. Employees got their bonuses for losing big. And they didn’t seem to care about the risks they took.
Now, I know things are getting a bit better for the finance industry. I know banks have paid back some of the government bailout money. I know some investment firms are hiring again. But there’s a permanent cloud lurking over Wall Street and a bad taste that’s still in my mouth. I don’t feel envious about those queen bees anymore. Chasing the Wall Street dream left plenty of those workers without a hive.
So you won’t find me dreaming about a job on Wall Street. Most my friends feel the same way. The big financial institutions need to work on their reputation before my generation signs over ours.
Rachel Krantz produced this audio postcard from a meeting of the Ethics Society at the NYU Stern School of Business.
The story aired on Marketplace Morning Report on February 25, 2010. The piece is part of a three-part Youth Media International series for Marketplace. How has the recession changed the way business school students think about ethics?
My name is Janice Shay and I'm currently the co-president of the Stern Ethics society. I had this marketing internship my freshman year and I was doing the book keeping for them and I saw a lot of the things they were doing, in terms of expenses... I knew it was just the executives of the company just having dinners, but they counted it as a company expense. So I didn't think that was very ethical. But at the same time, I was just a freshman. And I didn't have very much power and I was just an intern.
MEETING SOUNDS: You can give them pressure and say if you don't agree to hear you are going to end up in the unemployment line.
I'm Terence Tabili, I'm a senior here at NYU Stern. I study business management with a specialization in entrepreneurship. On my spare time I run my own company.
MEETING SOUNDS: We can get them in the middle of the room and we can say "a" or "b"? Where do you go?
Terrence: Our company--we actually had a product that we had to deliver to a client but we found out it was defective really late in the process. If we did tell them there's a problem with it, they said that since they were on a tight time schedule that we would suffer a big penalty. I think it was 2000 dollars a day. So in the end we decided to fess up and the company gave us an extension to finish the project, so we weren't charged a penalty and we were able to correct the problem. And when I brought this case to the Stern Ethics society they kinda chose the same thing, though some kids were kind of sketchy about it and said they would hide it.
MEETING SOUNDS: But lulu, did discuss world com. We had choice "a" and "b". What would you choose?
JANICE: With our club, if we're telling them these situations, hopefully they're learning from that and they don't do that in the future. Because they're the future, they're the next generation so in the future they encounter any ethical dilemmas they'll think-- this is what happened with Bernie Madoff, this is what happened with Enron. Hopefully that resonates in their minds when they go out in the workplace.
