A.) I am looking to have this piece placed
online through “Buzzfeed” and “The Huffington Post” as mainstream papers and
magazines get thousands of submissions on a multitude of subjects. I may also present this on a stream-able
radio station online or in the form of a podcast placed next to the text of
this article in “Buzzfeed” and “The Huffington Post.” In an online article from Business Wire about
“The Huffington Post” in 2013 the online site experienced the most growth,
stating: “The Huffington Post has 46 million monthly U.S. unique visitors and
78 million monthly global unique visitors (comScore, August 2013) posting over
eight million comments each month.” A
post on this site could reach a large and diverse audience. I expect an op-ed in this net-zine to be read
by the generation that directly predates the millennials that are young
professionals; those currently serving time paying down their school debt.
Also, “Buzzfeed” has a unique way of
touching the millennial generation and their attention span. The site has journalists with prior
experiences from The Wall Street Journal, NY Times and Propublica. Journalists with credible backgrounds have
been able to touch a significantly different generation raised on technology. According to The Huffington Post in December
2013 the demographics of Buzzfeed consisted of “51 percent male and 49 percent
female.” The age demographics of
Buzzfeed are also compelling in terms of the stakeholders and audience I am
trying to reach on my topic. The
Huffington Post reporting on Buzzfeed states, “Readers between the ages of 18
and 24 (the "younger generation") dominate the space. An estimated 24
percent range between the ages 18-24; 28.7 percent are between 25 and 34.” It is this younger generation I think would
be the most effected by the rising cost of tuition and who would be most
motivated to advocate for change. Also
this demographic, through the internet, unlike any other generation before, has
more exposure to those in other countries.
This exposure to other societies who have different educational
experiences has an impact on how we view our educational system and its cost.
B.) $54,169.00
is my total post-secondary school debt.
Currently I’m enrolled in a master’s degree certificate that qualifies
me to defer payments on this debt. I
called Fed Loan Servicing, my loan servicer, to determine if I should keep
paying while in the program.
I asked for the amount of interest I am
paying, as the total amount I owed seemed to be higher than the last time I
checked despite making the monthly payment.
The customer service rep said the interest was $3.59. I said, oh per month? Her reply was PER DAY.
In shock I asked, can I choose to not
accept the deferment? The
representative responded that I could choose not to defer while in the program,
but she affirmed that the purpose of this option was to help me focus on my
studies. It was in that moment that I
started to wonder if all my education was worth such a heavy price tag. In the country I live in, what are we doing
to make higher education more affordable?
Student loan debt is on the rise in the
United States. According to the Total Federal
Student Aid Portfolio Summary found on the
https://studentaid.ed.gov/about/data-center/student/portfolio, the outstanding
amount of student loan assistance equals $1,140,000,000,000 (a billion dollars
equals a thousand millions).
What is the reason so much financing is
needed by individuals to pay for higher education? The greatest reasons have become the rising
cost of tuition, commercialization of higher education, mixed with scarce
postsecondary resources from the government come in conflict with the demands
for education. To fill the financial gap
created by rising tuition parents and students commit to large amounts of loans
to supplement what might be provided by other means, such as scholarships and
grants. Scholarships can be both time
consuming for a student leaving high school trying to get applications done for
entrance and can be extremely competitive with stringent parameters that
exclude certain students from the beginning.
We need to find a way to dig each other
out. Currently the focus of the Obama
administration has been to make post-secondary education more affordable. The price tag can be the most expensive thing
you will ever decide to buy for yourself.
What makes buying a higher education more mystifying is that you sign
promissory notes not knowing how much your monthly payment will be. Even when you finance your car or take out a
home mortgage you sign documents that show the parties entering into the
contract agree to a certain monthly payment amount. The new focus in the Obama administration is
the tagline, “Know Before You Owe.”
How do you budget the cost of
post-secondary education before signing up for loans, classes and books? How do you even know if the loans you are
taking on in total can be manageable to pay back? Aren’t there other options? I would offer that there are other ways that
have proven success in other countries.
Having been born in the United Kingdom, I
often think about what would it be like have attended higher education in that
country versus here. Educational policy
in the U.K. has changed greatly from when I lived there – their higher
education, pre Margaret Thatcher, was low to no cost, financed by levied taxes. Currently, higher education in the United
Kingdom has moved to an “ICR” system, otherwise known as Income Contingent
Repayment. Small loans can be taken out
by students based on their parent’s income at the time, increasing minimally
for fees.
For further comparative higher education
models check back for further monthly entries on my blog at: http://maolstrategiccommunication.blogspot.com/
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