Several grassroots organizations are pushing the federal government to eliminate student loan debt. This could potentially help the Syracuse University students burdened with loans.

Approximately 65 percent of Syracuse University students take out federal loans, said Kaye DeVesty, director of the Office of Financial Aid.

The City Council of Albany, NY voted unanimously in favor of a resolution put forward by Jim Sano, a physical education teacher at a public middle school in Albany. It called for the federal government to consider forgiving student loans as part of a stimulus package geared towards young people, according to an article in The New York Times.

Launched in 2005, the Project on Student Debt focuses on research and policy to raise awareness of student loan debt. The organization develops solutions to make student loans less burdensome for those who need them and aims to reduce the number of loans required by college students.

‘We don’t work with the students directly,’ said Edie Irons, communications director for the Project on Student Debt. ‘However, we do work to improve loan repayment and financial aid application policies.’

Federal loan forgiveness is linked to professions like government workers, teachers and Peace Corps volunteers. The National Health Service Corporation forgave up to $50,000 for two years of working, Irons said. Other public service employees could get up to 10 years of loan forgiveness. Irons said loan forgiveness has the potential to stimulate the economy more than the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

‘Programs are different and they can be very generous,’ Irons said. ‘They could help with just a portion of the debt or all of it.’

Robert Applebaum, a New York lawyer, created a Facebook group dedicated to the cause. Named ‘Cancel Student Loan Debt to Stimulate the Economy,’ the group looks to eliminate all student debt in hopes that such measures will strengthen the economy. He established the group after graduating from law school $80,000 in debt.

Applebaum and his 228,969 group members advocate that the taxpayer money the government uses to bail out financial institutions, banks and insurance companies should be used to help students with their college loans.

The stimulating effect on the economy would be immediate once student loan debt is eliminated because credit markets would unfreeze and tax revenues would increase, which in turn would create additional jobs, Applebaum said in the Facebook group.

Jerry Miner, an economics professor at SU, said attempting to forgive only student loans would single out those who face other debt problems.

‘You can imagine people who don’t have an education who would be thrilled to have their debts cancelled,’ he said. ‘It’s a contract when you sign a loan. The government can’t simply come along and say you don’t have to pay that money back.’

Miner said a significant contrast between student loans and mortgage loans is that when someone fails to pay back a loan on a house, the lenders have the power to take it away, but an education can’t be taken back.

‘You can’t sell yourself, or the interest of yourself, to the lender,’ he said.

Jessica Sturchio, a sophomore communications design major, said she believes in the push for student loan forgiveness.

‘I think that loan forgiveness makes sense because college graduates would have more money to revive the economy,’ Sturchio said.

vdnapoli@syr.edu

Published on September 28, 2009 at 12:00 pm