Student Loan Debt
Floor Speech
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, yesterday we debated and voted on the need to lower interest rates for students with college debt.
I consider the issue of the high cost of college and student indebtedness to be one of the very serious problems facing our country, impacting millions and millions of young people and their families.
What I did through my Web site is just ask people from Vermont and around the country to briefly write stories about the impact of college debt on their lives.
What I would like to do very briefly is to read some of the very poignant stories we have received. I believe we have received now over 700 stories from people all over America who are talking about what the student debt they have incurred is meaning to their lives.
Let me very briefly read some of the responses we have received.
Shannon Lucy, 29, is from Essex Junction, VT. She is $90,000 in debt. She wrote:
I currently live in my boyfriend's parents' basement because I cannot afford to pay both rent and my nearly $900 per month student loan payments. Despite working two jobs and living rent-free I am barely making ends meet. I can't even dream of buying a house or supporting a child--I can't even support myself. Getting married would mean burdening someone else with my debt so that's not financially possible either. I thought I did everything right. I thought getting an education was an investment in my future. But now there's not a single day when I don't feel like I'm drowning under this massive load of debt. And the worst part is that even though the president is introducing student loan relief measures because my loans are mostly privately funded there's still no relief for me.
I wish to read a statement that I received from Brittany Holman, 29, who is from Portland, OR, and is $200,000 in debt. She writes:
I'm scared and am desperately in need of help. I'm nearly $200,000 in debt from student loans all because I wanted to get an education. Was that not what I was supposed to do? I graduated from Syracuse University in 2006 went to Japan for two years to teach English and then came back home to a crashed economy and a bleak job market.
Despite my two B.A. degrees from a great university, I have to settle for underemployment in a minimum wage retail job.
Andrew Englebrecht, 22 years of age from New Lenox, IL, $80,000 in debt, writes:
It makes me depressed. I have no hope. Nothing will ever get better. I'm scared. I can't go get my masters because my life has already been ruined. I ruined my parents' life. The bank finally was willing to work with us and not take our house; that doesn't mean we can pay the loans back either. I can't move out of the house. I can't propose to the girl I love. I can't live because I can't dream. I'm afraid to have kids because I'm scared they wouldn't have a chance.
This is one from Eric Anders, 29, of Chicago, IL, $125,000 in debt. He writes:
My law school debt is astronomical. It will keep me from being a homeowner for a long time. I believe serious efforts need to be made to reduce the costs of attending both college and graduate school.
Kelly Weiner, 27, from Brooklyn, NY, is $134,000 in debt, and says:
I went to law school because I wanted to help people and communities who are underserved by the law. ..... I am currently paying back my loans on an income-based repayment plan with a 7.3% interest rate which means I am not even making a dent in my debt. ..... According to my repayment plan I will be in my fifties before I get out of debt.
Saul Barraza, 23, of Littleton, CO, $35,000 in debt, writes:
I feel like I'm sinking further and further into debt. The interest rate on my loans is eating me alive. I don't believe that I've ever touched the principal on my loans. I simply pay interest and avoid default. ..... I feel that my debt is holding me back from being able to contribute to society. It is a ball and chain that follows me everywhere I go preventing me from starting the rest of my life.
Lastly, let me read from Dustin Green, 28, of Yukon, OK--$50,000 in debt between him and his wife:
Between my wife and myself we pay over $600 a month for our student loans. I have a good job and can barely afford these payments along with normal bills. After graduation dealing with each loan company was a task of its own. They do not care if you have enough money to eat but simply to pay them back. My wife and I are wanting to buy our first home but with so much of our salaries going to monthly student loan payments we can't make that step yet. We have both wondered if the yearly income difference with a college education is worth the extra debt.
So those are just some of the 700-plus stories that we have heard from young people and their families all over this country about the crushing impact that student debt is having on their lives.
We have to address this issue. We have to make college affordable for all Americans regardless of income.
I hope that we can do that sooner rather than later.
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