Student loans cripple young people before they even start out in adult life. The average entry-level salary varies nationally from $20,000 to $40,000, which, with the cost of living, leaves precious little to send in a monthly envelope to Uncle Sam. If you spend huge amounts of money on law school and then go into public-interest work (say, with an environmental law firm or the ACLU), you'll probably be eventually forced to give up your high-minded ideals and take a corporate job by sheer force of economics. Having to pay back loans is simply impossible for most recent grads, especially given the huge problems with finding jobs most have been having in this economy. This doesn't even include the legions of unemployed dot-commers, who were told by all the mavens through their high school and college careers that computer science degrees were the key to a successful future, and now find themselves making lattés at Starbucks to pay the rent.

There's definitely a class system at work here, as well: Rich kids whose parents paid for their Ivy League educations start off their adult lives debt-free; the rest of us desperately trying to avoid middle-class poverty are stuck treading water. The question of whether to go to a better, more expensive private school or a cheap state school is usually a no-brainer. After all, you only get one chance at college. Employers are impressed by a "big name" college, and if you want to reach the top of your field, a good school is a necessity. There are only so many publishing houses in New York, and most will hire a Wellesley graduate over a UMass-Amherst graduate any day of the week. Still, even many with good grades find themselves stuck in the early-twentysomething doldrums, unable to get a job in their chosen field, or, even if they do, not making enough to support themselves, or-the worst thing of all to try to impress a date with-still supported by, or even living with, their parents.

The same with graduate schools: A friend of mine, who graduated from SUNY Albany with top grades, made it into Columbia law school and remarked to the dean that he seemed to be one of the very few state university grads in his class. The dean replied that certainly he didn't think that a 4.0 at SUNY is the same as a 4.0 at Columbia. This, of course, is utter bullshit: Any Columbia professor or student-teacher will tell you that grade inflation is as rampant on their campus as it is at a state university. (Perhaps even more so: Parents shelling out $25,000 like to think they get what they pay for.)

Despite the fact that not everyone is able to pay off their student loans, the loans themselves never go away. Even bankruptcy isn't sure protection: After default peaked at almost 25% in the early nineties, Washington made it much harder to discharge the debt. Tax returns can be intercepted, and your wages can be garnished. Nor can you default forever: Even though my post-9/11, post-unemployment grace period ran out, I can't afford to pay my loans back on my salary, though I do send in a $10 a month "good faith" payment. Thankfully, debtor's prison went out with Charles Dickens, and none of Dick Cheney's buddies seems to own a collection agency.

In Europe, education is guaranteed by the government. As long as you want to stay in school and have the grades, you get free tuition, if not much pocket money. In times of economic hardship, the universities become virtual brain trusts, keeping labor from flooding the market while building up the number of skilled workers. The result is an enormously well-educated population, especially in countries like Sweden, where doctorates abound-which also means it's hard for Swedish politicians to pull the wool over their citizens' eyes, a la the Bush administration.

The answer, then is this: General student loan amnesty, or at least vastly educed payments on the $26 billion still outstanding. The money would be better spent on the things we actually need to begin our lives-refrigerators, houses, cars-thus jump-starting the economy. Compared to some other projects, $40 billion is a drop in the bucket. The Iraq occupation, for instance, is costing over a billion a week; President Bush recently asked for $87 billion to continue the effort. What's the use of trying to build a future for people half a world away when at home, poor kids are being milked for all they're worth? Hell, reappropriating the Iraq budget to the Department of Education would be enough to not only forgive the entire nation's student loans, there would be enough left over for a national health-care system.

We sure as hell hope this will be a major election issue in 2004, because whichever candidate addresses it is going to net him (or her-) self a whole hell of a lot of votes.

Posted October 12, 2003 12:18 AM