LETTERS

Getting a grip on student loans

Posted 9/8/16

To the Editor, It used to be that if you were a good student and worked hard, you could go to college, get a job, have a successful career, buy a home and live the American Dream. Today, that dream for millions of young people is impossible. Escalating

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LETTERS

Getting a grip on student loans

Posted

To the Editor,

It used to be that if you were a good student and worked hard, you could go to college, get a job, have a successful career, buy a home and live the American Dream. Today, that dream for millions of young people is impossible. Escalating college debt, in a job market that is less than promising to new graduates, pushes it farther and farther away.

Associated Press recently reported that Americans are facing a crushing $1.26 trillion in student debt. That burden affects anyone who goes to college - whether they graduate or not or attend a for-profit college. It also includes parents of students who have incurred debt on behalf of their children, and struggle now, in their later years to repay this burdensome debt.

There are solutions - including a brand-new information service through

R.I. Student Loan Authority (R.I.S.L.A.,) which provides a free confidential portal that employers can offer their employees to help them organize, analyze and develop a strategy on how to get a grip on their education loans or those for their children. It works not just for students and employees struggling with their college debt but for businesses looking to attract and keep great talent.

I am pleased to have helped initiate this program - called *The Student

Loan Repayment Solutions* tool - working closely with R.I.S.L.A., to provide important, immediate and individualized relief to students, graduates and parents. And I thank our political and business leaders:

General Treasurer Seth Magaziner - who is an active Board member and administrator of the College Bound programs; our General Assembly; the accounting firms KLR and Cayer Caccia CPAs and several of our high-tech companies.

R.I.S.L.A. is working with our area Chambers of Commerce to spread the word about this great new initiative, and will host seminars to work with business and affected borrowers.

What we want to do as a state and as a society is to our 'best and brightest' here, and attract other great talent to grow our tax base and build community. By being the first state-based program in the nation, we provide an enormous advantage to our employers and help our families. Other states offering incentives have had an important advantage over Rhode Island: this new program levels that playing field and makes us more competitive, while helping our most precious resource - our people. For more information, visit www.risla.com.

Rep. Eileen Naughton

House District 21

Warwick

Comments

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  • HerbTokerman

    The reason college is so expensive is because of easy to get student loans.

    Colleges and Universities have the impression there is an unlimited bank of money, so they can charge whatever they want.

    Thankfully some young people are starting to wise up and realize that they do not need a college degree to go in to a trade, and they'll make more in a trade than with some useless overpriced degree.

    The only way the cycle will be broken is for student loans to be harder to get and colleges and universities to experience half empty classrooms for a while so they are forced to lower their prices.

    It is absurd that many colleges cost more than it does to buy a house.

    We have an entire generation that will be in a tough situation when it comes to retirement.

    Who can save for retirement when you walk out of school 100k or more in debt?

    Saturday, September 10, 2016 Report this

  • Kammy

    My child goes to CCRI part time because she can't afford to go full time and hold a job that allows her to pay for school. That includes a student loan through RISLA. Unfortunately her parents make too much money to make a dent in the loan and she is not independent yet. If she moves out and lives on her own then yes, she will get better student loans, however she will have to work more to pay for housing and loans and not be able to go to school. It is a destructive cycle that hits middle class families. If we were poor, she would be able to go to school full time for little to no money. If we were rich, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. We are in the middle with her father working 2 jobs, her mother working 1 and the student working full time. It is just one big joke.

    Friday, September 16, 2016 Report this