Think the 2016 Election Will Change Things for the Better for Student Loan Borrowers and their Families?  

Think again.

Clinton, Trump, Members of Congress and all their pals on Wall Street and investors Everywhere can seek relief from insolvency and huge debt from Federal Bankruptcy laws in the US of A.  Invest in yourself by going to college and borrowing money to do so, graduate to a low-paying job market or get sick and unable to afford paying your student loans and YOU HAVE NO SUCH PROTECTION.  Ditto for parents who step up and help their kids by co-signing for a student loan but who are saddled with it if - for whatever reason - the child cannot or does not pay it back!

Time to start asking those we elect why this is the case? Why there is no equal protection of the law(s) when it comes to people investing in themselves? Perhaps it has something to do with all that campaign money given to incumbents by Federal Student Loan collection agencies and federal contractors and also to LOBBY the people you elect? See, for instance, info at these links:

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00331835

and--->

https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000050381

What to do:  Learn how to run for Congress and do so starting in 2017. See how responsive those we elect suddenly become!  And if not, replace them and get going yourself to change the laws so they apply to ALL investors, especially to college student loan borrowers and their families who invest in themselves but who get no positive return on their investment!

Mom Gets Help with Student Loan she co-signed from her US Senator after Son Passed Away

from:  http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/01/thank_you_sen_schumer_for_helping_with_late_sons_debt_your_letters.html

on January 23, 2016 at 8:29 AM

To the Editor:
I wish to thank Sen. Charles Schumer for his assistance in obtaining loan forgiveness for private education loans I co-signed with my son, Jonathan Heerkens, who passed away in 2011. If a student passes away during the repayment period, federal education loans are forgiven but private loans to not include that provision.
Several times I contacted the institutions that issued the private loans and was told that my request could not be honored. I eventually wrote to Sen. Schumer's office and received a prompt resolution. My case was assigned to a member of his staff who contacted me via phone, mail and email to apprise me of the progress of my request. I received the same personal correspondence when the issue was resolved.
I am eternally grateful to Sen.Schumer for his assistance and wanted to share his good work with his constituents.
Kathy Cardina
Marcellus, New York

Student Loan Collector ECMC's CEO Received $1.1 million in 2010.

A Word to the (not so?) Wise: Your senators and congressmen will continue to allow this nonsense unless WE demand an end to exorbitant collection fees and CEO pay to collectors of student loan debts.

"Taxpayers (and student loan borrowers) Fund $454,000 Pay for Collector Chasing Student Loan" 

Read the full story from Bloomberg News at:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/taxpayers-fund-454-000-pay-for-collector-chasing-student-loans.html

By John Hechinger, Bloomberg News - May 15, 2012 12:01 AM ET

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Photographer: Scott Houston/Corbis

Occupy Wall Street protesters burn a Sallie Mae envelope during a demonstration against the rise of student loan debt... Read More

Photographer: Scott Houston/Corbis

Occupy Wall Street protesters demonstrate against student loan dept reaching $1 trillion on April 25, 2012 in New York.

Source: Educational Credit Management Corp. via Bloomberg

Richard Boyle, chief executive officer of Educational Credit Management Corp. (ECMC).

Photographer: Don Emmert/AFP/GettyImages

The 'Master of Degrees' strikes a pose during an Occupy Wall Street rally against the high cost of college tuition... Read More

Photographer: Shawn Rocco/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT via Getty Images

U.S. President Barack Obama talks about the affordability of higher education during a speech at Carmichael... Read More

Joshua Mandelman made $454,000 in a single year as a student-loan debt collector -- more than twice the pay of the U.S. secretary of education.....
His boss, Richard Boyle, chief executive officer of Educational Credit Management Corp., received $1.1 million in 2010, including commuting expenses from his ranch in New Mexico. Five other managers each took home more than $400,000.....

The company (ECMC) stands by its executive pay. Rising management compensation reflects ECMC’s growth, said Hawn, who received $541,000 in 2010.
Since Boyle became CEO in 1999, revenue tripled, to $168 million, as the company took over the portfolios of guaranty agencies in Oregon, Connecticut and California. Under the company’s charter, the Education Department turns to ECMC as the go-to organization to take charge of troubled agencies.
Boyle also used excess revenue to buy related businesses that aren’t tax-exempt, including Premiere Credit of North America LLC, which chases patients for medical bills and parents for child support, as well as students for loan payments.

Like all guaranty agencies, ECMC receives more money collecting from borrowers like Raposa than it does keeping them from defaulting in the first place.
Agencies get 1 percent of a borrower’s loan amount for preventing a default through counseling. That’s $250 on a $25,000 loan, the current average of a student leaving college, according to the Education Department.
Once borrowers default, or fail to make payments for 270 days or more, the financial rewards for collectors multiply.
Under government rules, guaranty agencies add collection costs -- currently as much as 25 percent -- to a borrower’s loan balance. They also keep 16 percent of any money recovered.

Hitting the Jackpot (emphasis added by this blog)

If an agency “rehabilitates” a loan -- getting borrowers to make nine payments in 10 months -- it gets a jackpot. 

By law, the organizations can receive as much as 37 percent of a borrower’s entire loan amount, half in collection costs and half in taxpayer-funded commissions. ECMC says it typically collects 31 percent, or $7,750 on a $25,000 loan. That’s 31 times what it can make for preventing the default through counseling.
In 2010, ECMC generated $131 million from collections, or about three quarters of its revenue, compared with about $17 million from programs aimed at preventing default. 

In terms of caseload, ECMC devotes more employees to default prevention than collections, Hawn said. The company averages 77 default-prevention workers for 241,000 delinquent borrowers in need of counseling. It has about 90 debt collectors for 557,000 borrowers in default.

‘Poorly Aligned Incentives’...-read the article at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/taxpayers-fund-454-000-pay-for-collector-chasing-student-loans.html

.......................

News students & parents can use:  What to know before you apply for student loans:Before you apply for student loans, investigate one thing to avoid graduating with crippling debt: Find out how much graduates in your field of study earn ...

Bankrate.com   at: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/student-loans/what-to-know-before-you-apply-for-student

	x
---Student Loan Action Group is re-publishing this post since Congress has yet to address what it  requires student loan borrowers to pay in fees to its student loan collectors... "Student Loan Collector ECMC's CEO Received $1.1 million  in 2010, including commuting expenses from his ranch in  New Mexico...."	5:30 PM (1 minute ago)

 

Tell the Senate Education Committee to hold hearings and take action to help ALL student loan borrowers now. 

(photo courtesy of money.cnn.com)

May 9th, 2015

to:
Senator Lamar Alexander and Members of the Senate Education Committee

Dear Senator Alexander,

Given the news that the "Obama Administration Improperly Denies Student Loan Debt Relief," at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/08/federal-student-loans-defense-against-repayment_n_7242136.html  ,
this is to ask you to have the Senate Committee on Education hold hearings on this topic and subpoena the staff of the US Education Department and the CEOs of their contractors to ask WHY they  are NOT doing their jobs re helping student loan borrowers.

Also, there needs to be Senate hearings and action on how Social Security benefits of senior citizens on fixed incomes are being garnished by both the US Education Department and other federal agencies resulting in many seniors having to seek relief by applying for state and federal assistance for food, energy, Medicaid and housing. Does this make sense Senator?

Please note the 'topic' chosen above is "Small Business" because, after all, people who invest in themselves are indeed the best small businesses America has. Chasing them into their graves, harassing them for debts they cannot pay, denying them equal protection under federal bankruptcy laws and basically ruining them and their families throughout their lives is NOT the American way.

Since Republicans now control our Congress, it is now time to the lead on this by holding hearings and taking needed corrective Congressional action the Obama Administration refuses to take. Thanks for taking the lead in better protecting America's best small businesses: Americans who invest in themselves and are chased into poverty and into their graves for doing so. Members of Congress give away over $100 billion in 'free' foreign aid every year in taxpayer money yet they are merciless in continuing to ignore the desperate needs of their own constituents first. Why is this?

Alan DiCara
Student Loan Action Group
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 This request was sent via Senator Lamar Alexander's contact page at:  http://www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email   and a copy follows below. Send your own request to Senator Alexander and the Senate Education Committee at that page and MAIL your signed petition to:

Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
428 Senate Dirksen Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5375
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Going to College? Time to Think About What your 'Return on Investment' in your Time and Money Will Be.

-check out: the Wall Street Journal's "College Majors Figure Big in Earnings," by Melissa Korn at:  http://www.wsj.com/articles/college-majors-figure-big-in-earnings-1430971261

&: "The Economic Values of College Majors," by Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce at: https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/valueofcollegemajors/#exec-summary

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Student Loan Borrowers are Clueless and Could Care Less about their Student Loans. Proof:

How can this be?  $1.3 trillion in student loan debt and only 60 followers of this Student Loan Action Group blog? There should be 50 million-not counting parents and other cosigners as well as people who make a living delivering higher education services in America. Perhaps some of you can REDDIT or Facebook or Tweet (or whatever) the fact that this Student Loan Action Group blog even exists? Spread the word. Keep posted to the posts - the most important one being the first, which offers a comprehensive approach to resolving the student loan 'crisis' in America:  see the fort post, "WHAT WE WANT," at:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=982730444916931553#editor/target=post;postID=7715673524180606627;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=6;src=postname

Then email me at alandicaraATgmail.com after starting your local college chapter of Student Loan Action Group....When you get back from student break, before Summer, after you're done studying, watching TV or something on you iPhone or iPOD or texting whomever for the nth time, think about DOING SOME THING to improve the quality of your life and that of your family and friends. Join Student Loan ACTION Group to lower your college costs, increase your income and reduce your financial and other liabilities...

-by the Editor/Blogger. Feel free to copy/paste/email/tweet this post with our without attribution.

Some parents got no money to retire on as they help cover college costs!?

T. Rowe Price: Many Parents Short-Changing Their Retirement to Cover College Costs

3BL Media (press release)

"Some are willing to take on considerable college debt: 52% of respondents are willing to take on $25,000 or more in debt to pay for their kids' college .. Survey Finds That About Half of Parents Are Willing to Delay Retirement and Dip Into Retirement Savings to Pay for Kids' College..." read it at: https://3blmedia.com/News/T-Rowe-Price-Many-Parents-Short-Changing-Their-Retirement-Cover-College-Costs

Bottom line: Perhaps responsible young college-bound students - and all college students - can reassess their choice of college and how much its total cost will be to overall family finances, not just on them but on their whole family: Mom and Dad, siblings, others. If the burden is too great, seeking a less expensive schools that can deliver a quality education with greater financial aid might be the wiser choice for all in the long run.  And college students might also determine what the net return on their total college investment will be for the major chosen and rethink the choice if it fails to deliver what's needed to live and to pay back student loans...