College Just Got Cheaper, for Government Workers

When the Obama Administration couldn’t get the Student Loan Overhaul through the Senate last year, they created a scheme to tacking it onto the unrelated healthcare bill.

This bill won’t make education any cheaper but it does make government jobs more desirable.  

Now anyone working for the government will get their student loans completely forgiven after ten years. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan told NPR that the public sector has lost huge amounts of talent because students graduate college with $100,000 in debt and can’t afford public jobs.

Yet government jobs are one sector that is growing, and is typically better paying than the average private sector job (not to mention benefits).  Indeed, teachers working for public schools make significant more money than private school teachers.

I cannot think of a better way for Congress to incentivize working for the government, then promising to erase $100,000 in student loan debt.

It is shocking the Student Loan Bill promises to save $62 billion in the next 10 years when it decreases student’s monthly repayment amounts and eventually erases their college debt.

If students can’t afford to “follow their hearts,” as Mr. Duncan says, because of their student loans, it is a reflection on the cost of higher education and should be addressed at its source, not by special loan forgiveness programs for careers hand-picked by politicians.