Preserving The Promise Of Higher Education: Ensuring Access To The "American Dream" Through Student Debt Reform

Source: Bryan D. Watson. University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy. Dec2014, Vol. 25 Issue 3, p315-330. 16p.

Summary: Many Americans believe that a college education is an integral part of the “American Dream”. However, a huge portion of those Americans generate so much debt that they fall into a financial hole that they may never be able to recover from. This may likely keep the student borrower from getting married, having children, starting a business, or purchasing a home until they become more financially secure. Bankruptcy is designed to relieve a debtor of his or her debt in an opportunity to start anew, unhindered from the opposition of preexisting debt. However,  In 1976 Title 11 of the U.S. Code told us that bankruptcy will be filed entirely through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, meaning that student loans are no longer fully dischargeable in America. Purposefully, Title 11 clearly states that bankruptcy will not relieve a debtor with debt created from any sort of educational loan. Access to the higher education portion of the “American Dream” will need the repeal of Title 11 of the U.S. Code or else the problem will only worsen for college students in the future. The repeal of Title 11 will not fix the problem with student loans altogether, but it's a good place to start a change.

Quality: Watson backs up all of his facts with quotes and he does a great job displaying the works he cites at the bottom of each page. This Is certainly convenient for the reader if one was interested in checking out the original source. For example, in the first paragraph Watson claims: “Despite the individual and societal benefits gained from a higher education, the economic burden created by student borrowing has created a drag on the American economy since the 2008 recession, threatening the countries future well-being.” He then directed us to the references just below that paragraph and the quote information was according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which is a very reliable source because they are a government owned site. Watson does this all throughout “Preserving the Promise of Higher Education: Ensuring Access to the “American Dream” Through Student Debt Reform”.

Issues: Regardless of how well written the essay is, Watson mistakenly made the essay too hard for an average reader to understand. My partner and I had to reread several of his paragraphs more than a couple times until we finally understood what Watson was trying to tell us. For example, Watson said "students cannot realistically seek the protection of personal bankruptcy, these borrowers' personal economic situation will likely continue to deteriorate, with predictable consequences for an already- anemic job market and an American economy that continues to sputter". His vocabulary is outstanding but it is simply too hard to understand what he's trying to say the first time that you read it. The writing throughout the whole essay is similar to the example just mentioned, and could benefit greatly with a downgrade on the vocabulary so that a broader audience can understand exactly what is being told to us.

Academic Freedom and Indentured Students

Todays student loan process is extremely similar to the process that indentured servants partook in during the early years of the United States' development. Both entities are controlled by a binding contract, that you will not be able to get out of, even if it is the only possible way you can pursue your self interest. 

Source: WILLIAMS, JEFFERY J. "Academic Freedom and Indentured Students." Academe, vol. 98, no. 1, 2012, pp. 10-15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23208995. 

Summary: Taking out student loans is relatable to immigrants taking the plunge centuries ago, coming to America as indentured servants. Unlike slaves, these servants normally worked for seven years for free, in exchange for their paid trips to America. This article compares college students who take out loans to indentured servants because if you use government assistance to advance your education, although the initial benefit is great, you will be paying for it for several years following graduation. The word "indenture" is a way of making a binding, personal contract with someone. Similar to indentured servants, governmental institutions who give out loans are prying on the desires of the less privileged. To add on, "student debt applies primarily to younger people, as indenture did."  these students who take out loans are already in a worse position then those who do not need student loans. Those who rely on the loans and other government programs in order to advance their education are far less likely to go onto graduate school. On average, 2/3 of college graduates, graduate with almost $30,000 in debt. However, 25 years ago, loan debt was only an average of $2,000 after graduation.

Quality: The source is relating the process of student loans and student debt to another aspect, history. This makes the source more attractive to those who study history or enjoy aspects of the social sciences. Furthermore, relating student loans to indentured servants makes a connection within two separate entities. This connection can possibly make student loans easier to understand for those who understand the indentured servant process. If before reading the article you did not have a grasp on indentured servitude, the author does a great job breaking down the process, and using examples and key vocabulary to help you understand the relationship between indentured servitude and receiving student loans. For example, "student debt primarily bears on those with less family wealth, just as indenture drew on the less-privledged classes" gives the idea of putting a connection between the two separate concepts. Likewise, "the growth of debt has ushered in a system of bondage similar in practical terms, as well as in principle, to indentured servitude" also helps with this connection.

Issues: The author does not list many sources from where he got his information from. I believe that he primarily relied on some information that he already knew when writing this article. The issue with not having many sources is that some information can possibly be questionable in terms of creditability. When a source is not for sure creditable, you cannot count on the material (in this case the article), being absolutely correct. Even though this article has many references to the author's opinion, the issue with the article is that you aren't for sure that some of the information is correct because of the article's lack of sources. If the author would have given the reader a larger amount of sources that they received or learned their information from, the article would overall be more creditable.

Financial Support and Its Impact on Undergraduate Student Financial Satisfaction

Students who use government assistance throughout their college career, in order to pay for the furthering of their education are more likely to be unsatisfied with their financial situation. They are less satisfied while in college and taking out the loans, and for the years after graduation when they are in the midst of paying back their student loans.

Source: SOLIS, OSCAR, AND DOROTHY B. DURBAND. "Financial Support and Its Impact on Undergraduate Student Financial Satisfaction." College Student Journal 49.1 (2015): 93-105. Education Research Complete. Web. 26. Oct. 2016.

Summary: Taking out student loans sometimes can cause college students to be unsatisfied with their current financial situation. Currently, the cost of public institutions is rising quicker than the cost of private institutions, but it is overall "increasing at an alarming rate." For my college students, getting government assistance through loans is the only possible way they further their education. Typically, students who have a "family income less than $50,000" are more likely to rely on student loans to pay for their education. And on average, college students will take out between $2,000-$9,000 per year in loans. However, student loans is often the difference between going, and not going, to college. "Over 70% of borrowers agree that student loans were very or extremely important in gaining access to a college education." Furthermore, these students who had government assistance believed that the "investment was worth the benefits they received." Even with the need for wanting to extend their education, the stress and need to rely on government assistance to gain a higher education can cause students to be financially unsatisfied throughout the time period they are paying off their loans.

Quality: The study is structured very well. Each part of the study is broken down into each section of what could cause financial satisfaction or not being satisfied with your finances. The study is very organized with headings and subheadings. With being organized, the conductor of the study breaks the study down and explains each section in great detail. For example, In the methods section, they explain the different variables used within the study. Structure and detail is a very important aspect of a study in order for those reading it to be able to follow it more easily. Additionally, since it is broken down in sections, it is easier to find the exact statistics or facts you are looking for. To conclude, the study is extremely organized and therefore easy to follow along to.

Issues: For this study, those who conducted it only surveyed one southwestern university. The information received through the study can therefore only be applicable to the southwestern public university. This could cause an error in the data collected. For instance, the students who attend this university could be from a less fortunate part of the country and will then be forced to take out more student loans. Another example how this could cause an error would be if all of the students who were surveyed at the one university were of one background or one class: example, if they were all apart of the working class. Also, whether or not the students worked and the pay rate in that area could have also effected the data collected. As you can see, only conducting the study in one university could inflate or cause errors in the data. The study should have surveyed students who attended different colleges and were of all backgrounds.