Homework Gone Progressive

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This week my professor gave his students the task of finding a business article to write about and express our opinions. Well I am not sure about your professor, but majority of my professors have a pretty conservative view. I thought that student loan debt would be a great topic of choice after I read this article, and would help to educate my classmates with a progressive touch. This is something that I feel very passionate about. Since I haven’t been able to write on my blog a lot because I have been busy with school, work, and community activities, I thought this would be a great opportunity to do a homework assignment and blog. Below is my homework assignment/blog and for those that don’t like to read, as usual I have attached a quick You Tube video with the highlights.

Recently, I read an article that caught my attention concerning college debt. The authors name was Allison Linn and it was entitled “Congrats, 2010 grads! Your debt load is the heaviest”. This article caught my attention because I feel as though I can relate to this business aspect/article. I am currently enrolled in a community college and looking forward to going to a four (4) year college. Throughout the article she highlighted many great points, but there were three points that stood out to me throughout the article. Those three points were the cost of a college education for our parents, today’s difficult job market, and student loan debt.

Many children hear the same phrase when they grow up which is “I am doing this to make your life better”. Well, in Allison’s article her attention grabber is “In addition to that hard-earned college degree, most of you walked away with more student loan debt, on average, than those who graduated before you.” Well this isn’t just some perception thrown out in the realm of reality and fantasy. In her article she highlighted a new report from “The Project on Student Debt” which cited that this information is true. So I ask the question “Can we say that the familiar old phrase that many of us grew up to and some are still growing up too is genuine?” The report goes on to state that “on average students who graduated in 2010 are carrying an average of $25, 250 in student loan debt, which is up five percent (5%) higher from a year earlier.”

The next highlight was the difficulty in the job market with today’s economy in turmoil. This once again is no deceptive stage of our imagination but reality. The numbers go on to state “the unemployment rate for 20 to 24 years old was 14.7 percent in September, much higher than the overall rate of 9.1 percent.” The middle class is being crumbled right now and in so many words she saying that the people that appreciate a good education and did the right thing have a price to pay. I am sure that everyone would agree that there is no mystery and that price to pay is no job or an underpaid job when you graduate from college.

The last point that she touched on is those words that we are all scared to say “Student Loan Debt”. In Allison’s article she touched on something that many of us forget which are the people that go to the schools in States with higher cost. One of the States that she went on to highlight was New Hampshire. She stated “In New Hampshire, for example, average debt for the class of 2010 was $31,048. But in Utah, students had an average debt of about half that, or $15,509”. Once again I must say great point Allison.

While I may be bias, my opinion is that the cost of college has run amuck and need to be reeled in with some type of reform. I think that Allison article clearly points out why young people need college cost and student loan debt reform, as stated before this isn’t a mystery, it is killing the middle class. This wasn’t Allison opinion, but hardcore facts and research that states that we are failing our future generations and something needs to be done.