When it comes to student loans, federal regulatory agencies have definitely targeted the vocational colleges. In quite a few lawsuits, students who later sued these universities claimed that despite being told there would be lots of employment available once they finished their degree programs, there were none available to them once they graduated. However, even though it would be the case for a sizable portion of students in some fields, I don’t see how it would be a problem unique to vocational schools.
You know, a large number of college students attended prestigious non-profit universities and colleges to earn their degrees, and it turns out that more than 50% of the students who had a legal degree were unable to find any sort of employment. If they are unable to find employment, they will undoubtedly be unable to repay their school loans, and the default rate is rapidly rising. In actuality, Josh Mitchell’s article “Student Debt Hits the Middle-Aged” from the Wall Street Journal on July 18, 2012, made the following claims:
The percentage of debts for which no payments have been made for 90 days, was 11.9% for borrowers aged 40 to 49. When debtors of all ages are included, the default rate is 8.7%.” This information appears to have come from the Federal Reserve Bank’s New York office.
That sounds like a huge problem, and the fact that it is related to our nation’s unemployment rate shows how serious the issue is. Therefore, one must consider whether it makes sense to increase the amount of student loans so that everyone may attend college while simultaneously driving the interest rate lower, especially given how quickly the delinquency rate is rising. Otherwise, we risk creating a student debt bubble, and all bubbles, regardless of their industry, eventually burst.
It scarcely makes sense for politicians or those podium-pushers to try to blame all of this on vocational college in Las Vegas, which genuinely teach people how to do a job and are typically affiliated with corporations, preparing people for the precise jobs that are needed. The fact that not-for-profit colleges and universities dislike competition and are aware that they are competing with one another for students who have obtained student loans to pay for college in the first place may be part of the true issue.
Perhaps it’s time to take all of this into consideration, give it some thought, and base all of our decisions on reality rather than political rhetoric, hyperbole, or anti-business sentiment simply because the majority of vocational schools are for-profit colleges as opposed to public or nonprofit universities. Do you get what I’m saying? In fact, I sincerely hope you will give this some thought.
