Student Loans back in the news again... bail out time?

[AMDScooter]

Until now this issue is the talk of the town? Geez! It appears as though Democrat and Republican politicians never see eye-to-eye on anything. But now, President Obama and Mitt Romney both agreed that the rate for Stafford school loans should not go up. But Congress may still not be purchasing it, at the cost of the nation's college students.I've read it in this article: Obama schools young on student loan hike

Obama is a douchebag looking to buy the youth vote back with placebo. If $7 a month is beyond your ability to budget you probably should not be wasting your money on an education to begin with. Like that oobertwit Fluke they hauled out for the last distraction attempt who was unable to locate birth control for less than $3k a year.

I guess people reading the personalmoneynetwork (a joint that pimps payday loans) are his target audience.... Get the money you need today.. buy now.. pay later.. no doc loans available!!!

Brother.

[Keven]

Teachers Union in Universities is unheard of... don't get public schools mixed up lol. I know for sure there aren't any teachers unions at the university I graduated from.

That's incorrect. There are some unionized professors at public schools. It's not all public schools, but there are some unionized faculties out there. I know this well because during all the moaning about public employee collective bargaining here in Wisconsin in the past 15 months, there have been some professors at the smaller UW schools who are screaming.

The TA's at a number of UW schools were also unionized. Which is kind of a hilarious concept.

I suspect that the professor unions are merely an academic exercise (pardon the pun) for the professors in the first place. Everybody knows how I feel about organized labor in the first place, but higher education teaching isn't even a hard or skilled profession like coal mining or building cars or carpentry. I mean, what do they collectively bargain for? Free tweed coats with those leather patches on the arms? They only want to lecture for five hours a week instead of seven? They want to sleep with more 20 year old undergraduates? I kid, I kid. But, there are some professor unions out there who do collectively bargain.

The professors are there doing "primary" research. Most of them don't have the time/talent/language skills to teach. Most of them don't have a broad enough knowledge of science to teach even 3rd year undergraduate courses well.

Not necessarily. My university banned TA's, professors were required to do their own lectures and teach their own classes and had to have 7 years experience in the private sector. Of course, I went to a small, expensive engineering university (less than 3,000 students). I don't think that would fly at a big public school.

And, because they were an engineering university, they were pretty light on faculty in the humanities departments. They had to import part-time English professors from the big private Catholic university down the road and those professors were completely worthless and liked to moan about not having a TA.

[Nate]

not everyone has the option to refinance on a home-equity line. to me the interest rates are a matter of principle. if banks are loaning 100's of thousands to shaky home-buyers at 4%, why are students being forced into 6-8% loans that have guarantees built in by the government? Its a racket

Government socialism fail(s) identified. See you at the polls.

[bk94si]

There is a difference between an unsecured loan and a secured loan, even if the borrower has shaky credit.

[Cobra_nVidia]

Not necessarily. My university banned TA's, professors were required to do their own lectures and teach their own classes and had to have 7 years experience in the private sector. Of course, I went to a small, expensive engineering university (less than 3,000 students). I don't think that would fly at a big public school.

The professors at Canadian Universities do the lectures based on their own course notes. The TA's are graduate students who instruct and watch the lab. I took one course by a PhD who worked in the private sector, but they were even worse.

A huge chunk of the work you do as a teacher occurs before or after class. It has more in common with acting in this respect than other jobs. Most professors do not have the time/ability/knowledge to construct an effective course. You have to have an incredibly broad knowledge to teach undergraduate courses - and professors who spend their lives researching one area don't naturally have this - and need to spend a lot of time ensuring it is organized.

They simply don't do this. Maybe an engineering degree is different - I do recall math courses being much better organized than chemistry/physics/biology courses, probably because the subjects are much more less knowledge intense and more problem solving.

[Phopojijo]

I suspect that the professor unions are merely an academic exercise (pardon the pun) for the professors in the first place. Everybody knows how I feel about organized labor in the first place, but higher education teaching isn't even a hard or skilled profession like coal mining or building cars or carpentry. I mean, what do they collectively bargain for? Free tweed coats with those leather patches on the arms? They only want to lecture for five hours a week instead of seven? They want to sleep with more 20 year old undergraduates? I kid, I kid. But, there are some professor unions out there who do collectively bargain.

Not necessarily. My university banned TA's, professors were required to do their own lectures and teach their own classes and had to have 7 years experience in the private sector. Of course, I went to a small, expensive engineering university (less than 3,000 students). I don't think that would fly at a big public school.

And, because they were an engineering university, they were pretty light on faculty in the humanities departments. They had to import part-time English professors from the big private Catholic university down the road and those professors were completely worthless and liked to moan about not having a TA.

Yeah it is pretty clear that you do not understand what a good teacher is.

[jimzinsocal]

Good article on the issue

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion...lPkpAWOllC7MPI

[tucker]

I thought “good” was not in the unionized teacher’s job classification.

Not my job!… it’s not in my job classification.