Do you envision an automatic repayment through payroll withholding and IRS-verified income? If so, how would you collect from the self-employed and unemployed?
You could have an opt-in for withholding, but that's not necessary. Today's student loans don't involve payroll withholding, after all.
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Is debt really the issue? I work at a nonprofit offering fellowships to law grads doing social justice work. But statistically, 69 percent of public-interest lawyers leave the field within five years. Do you think there may be a bigger issue in the difficulty of teaching, social work and public defense? Or perhaps more people are entering law school chasing the money.
Undoubtedly this kind of work is difficult, and many people who start do drop out eventually. That's understandable. The program I'm proposing doesn't require that grads spend their lives in the lower-wage jobs they initially choose. In fact, it doesn't require that they do anything except pay back a fixed percent (I'm using 3 percent as an example) of their full-time wages for the first 10 years of employment.
I guess my basic question is whether there is a bigger cultural disassociation with the plight of the poor that isn't addressed by your plan. If so, how do we fix that? I'm an African American public-interest lawyer, and most of my (also black) friends say the best thing they can do for poor people is to not be poor themselves.
My proposal isn't intended to deal with all the problems of poverty and the understandable desire of many to avoid dealing with the poor. All it's intended to do is make it financially possible for young people who want to go into low-wage professions -- many of them involving services to the poor, but not all by any means -- to do so.
How does this address the real problem, which is the skyrocketing cost of college tuition? Tuition costs will continue to rise, and the full amount will never be paid back even if others are "subsidizing" other people's education. Shouldn't we address issues such as salary caps for college presidents/administrators? Their incomes are rapidly approaching [those] of most CEOs.
College tuitions are rising faster than inflation, and that's a huge problem that needs fixing. But unless or until we fix it (and don't hold your breath), this proposal will help.
Michelle Singletary discusses personal finance Tuesdays on NPR's "Day to Day" program and online at www.npr.org. Readers can write to her at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 or send e-mail to singletarym@washpost.com. Comments and questions are welcome, but because of the volume of mail, personal responses may not be possible. Comments or questions may be used in a future column, with the writer's name, unless a specific request to do otherwise is indicated.
