Let me say as someone who quit school to accept a job offer that a degree is not useless. If anything, I’ve found that employers like people with diverse backgrounds - I got my current job because of my retail management background was very different from other applicants and provided me with a skill set that most of…

Well, fortunately, I didn’t actually go into teaching, despite the insistence of adults in the early 90’s. I work with special needs homeless, in a career that’s stable because I was fortunate enough to have started my career around 12 years ago, so I’m fairly established. But I STILL only make about half the median…

Yes. I knew what I was signing up for as far as loans go. I didn’t know that the bottom would fall out of the economy just as those debts would come due. All of the pie in the sky promises of what a college education would bring dissipated and there I was, left to pay it all back via the same restaurant gig I had…

That’s a really good point.

“At the time I started, teaching was a pretty lucrative field. Everyone was hiring, you couldn’t spit without hitting a ‘massive teacher shortage’ article, and yet, in a few short years, by the time I was ready to graduate with my degree the economy went tits up, teachers were being laid off, and as of right now, the…

This guy sure as hell doesn’t feel like Al Gore 2.0 to me. (Remember that 2000 was before Al Gore became cool.)

So, I too got government loans, which are VERY good, and also a drop in the bucket for expensive programs. Most people had no choice but to get private loans. For the generation in the biggest debt, they were told “loans are great no matter! It’s the best debt you can get! Everything is worth it for your education!”…

Probably nothing, which sucks. That is, until another 10 years go by, and the government realizes they can’t give a security clearance to anyone who smokes pot and has a certain level of debt.

It’s part of being in a society - it’s not just about you. It sucks sometimes.

Agreed. I, like many others who graduated prior to 2008, have federal loans that are fixed at 6.8%. Plenty, plenty of others are saddled with private loans at much higher rates. Meanwhile, my savings account is making about .9%.

Sometimes you gotta take one for the team. And before you complain too loudly, you didn’t live through the Depression and die penniless because Social Security hadn’t been enacted yet. You didn’t lose all your money in a failing bank because FDIC hasn’t been put into place yet. You can’t always unscrew the people who…

I went to college abroad and then came to the US for grad school. I was poor very poor in a developing country but I could go to college not only because it was free but because it was easy to apply. No nonsense, I did not even need my transcripts or an SAT score. I chose my major, they tested my abilities (not my…

I think you’re right, but the initial cost of higher education was prompted by the government withdrawing funding in 1987 forward. Student loans is a weak contribution to levelling the playing field in comparison.

I’m happy everyone has the right to vote but I’m also bummed someone can be so ignorant as to not know who Bernie Sanders is, and they may actually still vote.

I always cringe at the concept of a ‘useless’ degree. Its such a bullshit term, when you think about it. Fact of the matter is, all degrees have a use. All of them are necessary to break into certain fields. Some fields are booming, some are going bust, and there are varying degrees of competitiveness in every field.…

See, this statement right here is incorrect.

I would not underestimate him. He has integrity, and credibility as to the issues he speaks of. If he doesn’t run out of money, I actually think he is the only one who could beat Hilary in the primaries.

Meh, I get the continual feeling that Ivy League and other top schools, while good, are like designer clothes: They may be good quality, even the best, but past a certain point, you're really just paying for name prestige. Interesting fact, there are millions of people who didn't graduate from Ivy League schools who…

That seems to be the schools' bad, not the governments. Also, might I suggest that any and all tax funds to schools be earmarked exclusively for academic purposes only? If you want to try to build an NFL franchise do it on your own dime. Don't tie it to the cost of people trying to get a meaningful education.

Y'know, there's something to be said for people that act as thorns in the side of those who are much more powerful than them. God Bless Bernie Sanders and all the other mid-level political malcontents of the world.