It Is Never Enough

The New York Times ran an very lengthy story on Sunday in which the "plight" of college students from poor families is discussed. Boiling down a few thousand words into its essence, one finds that the Times is lamenting that poor students graduate from college with more debt in student loans that the children of the middle or upper income families have. Further, many students from poor families have to hold some sort of job during college which makes the experience more difficult for them. I find this amazing. Students from poor families have more debt because their families do not pay as much for college educations as the wealthy or middle income families do. These students get much larger loans which all of us subsidize. No one else could go and get unsecured loans at very low interest rates that can be paid over many years starting only some years in the future. Now, the Times is lamenting that these students have to pay the loans back. As for jobs, these are a normal part of college for many students. My daughter has worked part time for the last three years; she is now a senior in college. Almost all of her friends have some sort of job. Some of these students are from lower income homes and some are not. The Times article is just plain wrong.