Student loans have become a life sentence for students who take them. The scriptures warn against “interest” (usury) and the progressive theft of money as a result of usury at Deuteronomy 23:19, “Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of any thing that is lent upon usury…” Usury is any amount of interest according to the Bible.
I was “downsized” out of a 23-year career job in 2004 because the Enron Corporation bankruptcy (the largest in U.S. History) caused Silicone Valley stocks to plunge. The larger non-profit (church-related) company I worked for lost half its total assets nearly over night—even though invested wisely with a large bank.
Thrown onto the job market anew, I was flustered that I could not find a decent job. Holding a magna cum laud bachelor’s degree from N. C. State University and 23-years experience, who would have thought this? While losing my home, and after trying for over five more years to move back up in jobs, and with the insistence of repeated “sales calls” from a college, I borrowed to return to college thinking I was too far behind the mark in my education after 23+ years.
The catch is that after I borrowed the $45,000 (roughly) to attend three years at the most modestly-priced on-line college (Liberty University), I could still not find a job in my field so ended up with retail and delivery jobs paying close to minimum wage. Eventually I worked my way up to a middle management job in a very low paying retail chain. I had no money to repay that big loan.
No—it’s no one else’s fault that I borrowed that money. But, did I cause the state to change our licensing laws for my company then also? Seven of our children’s homes shut down in North Carolina within two years due to these changes and a volatile stock market. Did I steal the Enron money and cause bankruptcy? No. Others stole that money, some did time, some got away. One committed suicide. But it wasn’t my doing. As an older lady put out of a long term career job after nearly two and a half decades, I was floundering in a market full of other “fish”—young female and male students fresh out of graduate programs ready to be hired. It’s that simple.
STUDENT LOANS especially for graduate programs (and who doesn’t need a higher degree now) are set to reflect, for example, home mortgage rates. To send a child to college now is like buying a house in cost—this is true. How awful that cost is! Not only are the costs outrageous, but the interest charged amounts to USURY, a condition warned against in society by many moralists. It involves charging so much in interest for lending that the borrower can hardly ever repay it at all.
With my low-paying part-time jobs, I was largely unable to repay my STUDENT LOAN debt—which the government allows. However, interest keeps building until when I hit a windfall on a real estate sale last year, I sent a check to the Department of Education for $13,000 last February. When the Balance of the Loan was returned to me then, I still owed nearly exactly the amount I had borrowed when I obtained my degree in 2012. Imagine that!
Interest rates, especially for graduate student loans, are comparable to market rates. For example, current 30-year home mortgages run from 5.375% to 7% with a major lender today. My graduate loan interest rate is over 6% in interest. Auto loan interest rates now run from 2.58% to 10% normally on new vehicles.
Doing the math on my $45,000 STUDENT LOAN at 6% interest paid back over 15 years, payments are $380 a month. Payout over time totals $68,352, with INTEREST alone of $23,352. That means the borrower is paying an extra 50% on their borrowed money.
Keep in mind that in my own case, while I lost my home after downsizing, I had a place to live at my parents’ home. I was lucky. Can a new student, even in a professional field, pay back nearly $400 a month in addition to their rent or mortgage payment? Suppose they have to pay office rent, staff salaries, insurance, professional equipment, and/or licensing fees? Most colleges are MUCH more expensive than mine was, so amounts borrowed are three to four times higher. It boggles most brains to understand it…
Is the United States in the business of MAKING MONEY on student loans? Are ‘We the People’ now a competitor with regular commercial lenders? We’re charging those type of rates! Aren’t we wanting to simply support and assist these students facing awful prices in most colleges?
It’s not that the US is going to LOSE money on the current plan to help forgive student loans and give $10,000 “cuts.” It’s actually that we are saying: Let us become a real “helper” to support students and their families as they face what has become a burden to achieve higher education while also NOT make money like commercial lenders do on loans. We, the citizens of the USA, are not in the COMMERCIAL LENDING business, and we are not “Losing Money” on student loans that we never should have expected to make a PROFIT on from the backs of students.
Lisa Carol Rudisill, M.T.S., is a magna cum laud graduate of NC State University and Liberty University where she earned a Master of Theology. She writes novels about her family history during the Civil War in North and South Carolina. She is a freelance writer, editorialist and a contributor to The Standard newspaper.
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