This just in from CBC News...
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Category: News, Announcements and Alerts
Forum Name: News, Announcements and Alerts
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URL: https://www.canadastudentdebt.ca/forum_posts.asp?TID=4303
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Topic: This just in from CBC News...
Posted By: polyhymnia61
Subject: This just in from CBC News...
Date Posted: 12/June/2007 at 11:35pm
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/personalfinance/studentdebt2.html - http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/personalfinance/studentdebt2.html
...and my frustrated response:
"Did you actually read the stories on Canadastudentdebt.ca? I am so sick and tired of the same tired advice being trotted out by the media, assuming that all problems are caused by the students, assuming that they are all young and living with a middle-class mom and dad, and that by consulting with student loan administrators, all problems can be easily solved.
If you had read the stories on the forum, you would have discovered that:
1) not all students are YOUNG, and many have been forced into retraining in mid-life due to job losses. So many have no help from family, are raising their own families, and have bought into the myth (perpetuated by your article) that post-secondary education is the key to financial security. Sure, if you follow a narrow scope of studies and happen to live in a city that has jobs in your field, or are supported by someone while you work in unpaid internships.
2) I do commend you for recommending Canadastudentdebt.ca and the Canadian Financial Wellness Group; without their support and knowledge I honestly don't know where I'd be today, financially or psychologically. But beyond these two groups, I trust NO authority: no bank, no credit counselling group, nobody. If you had actually read the stories on the Canada Student Debt website, you would have realized that many of the problems are due to lost paperwork, and the apathy and incompetency of these groups. My bank made my life a living hell for years until the Canadian Financial Wellness Group stepped in; and I was an ex-employee of that same bank for 11 years! Imagine the mess others are in who don't have the same insider knowledge!
The entire system is hopelessly broken, overly complicated and unlikely to be fixed in the near future as students will continue to be blamed for all its problems, and the government makes money from this system. Currently my 20-year-old son is working in a dead-end retail job to pay the rent and save money because -- after living through and being a victim of my experiences with the bank and three collection agencies -- he refuses to take student loans.
The real story -- the one you and every media outlet avoid telling despite the efforts of Canada Student Debt and the Canadian Financial Wellness Group -- is much more interesting and heartbreaking. Does the CBC dare to tell that story?" I wouldn't bet on it...
 Poly ------------- Home is where you are allowed to prosper. |
Replies:
Posted By: administrator
Date Posted: 14/June/2007 at 12:45pm
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I agree totally with you Poly... the last three years in a row I've been contacted by a CBC reporter from Marketplace who wants to pitch a story. I provide info... blah blah, but they have never come through with a true story on this situation... ------------- Administrator Mark OMeara Author of Let Go and Heal: Recovery from Emotional Pain https://LaughSingWrite.com - http://bit.ly/heal2024 |
Posted By: pogorelichfan
Date Posted: 16/June/2007 at 8:14pm
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Hi everyone,
I've put in a call to CBC about the story and I am hoping to hear back from the author soon.
I have recently been asked to participate in another story about how to cope with the student loan system.
The thing that is difficult is that the media likes to departmentalize stories. There are those articles that are meant to offer solutions/suggestions for people based on CURRENT structures and systems. Those stories are not supposed to be about reforms or about how the system is currently failing.
Reform-type stories are of course a different story. When we publish our report about the CSLP there will hopefully be a new opportunity to look at and concentrate on substantive reform within the system.
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Posted By: SolveStudentDebt
Date Posted: 17/June/2007 at 3:55am
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Coping with the student loan system would be best if the cost of education were reduced. Universities are businesses, however. Evidently, so is the student loan lending system. One business feeds on/from the other.
Johnny
------------- Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting. http://www.solvestudentdebt.com" rel="nofollow - solvestudentdebt.com |
Posted By: pogorelichfan
Date Posted: 28/June/2007 at 1:46am
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For those who are interested, we have not had our telephone calls returned by the CBC reporter who did this story.
We were able to speak with the Investor's Group interviewee about the story, and she had something very interesting to say: the quote used in this story is actually from an interview from one year ago!
Debbie from IG said she was happy to hear from us and would be reviewing our website and related information to see whether her view on the student loans system might or should be revised.
We look forward to seeing any movement on this issue....
Best, Julian Benedict
Coalition for Student Loan Fairness
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Posted By: Casey
Date Posted: 29/June/2007 at 7:00pm
and... How many people were pushed into taking out student loans as part of a provincial government plan to off load them from the Social Assistance budget? I for one was pushed that way with threats of being cut off assistance. At the time I was unemployed and had just become a single parent with two very young children. Emotionally, I was in no condition to make the decisions that were forced on me. My world was falling down around me. I was loosing my house and having a difficult time finding a decent place I could afford to rent. My prime concern was looking after the best interests of my children. Due to health problems, I was never able to complete the course I had started.. With the high interest rates of the 1980's (12%) payments on the loan never touched the principal and the balance just kept growing.. The result is a very small loan grew to over $10,000. I was never able to make enough to pay off the loan and with later health issues I had to quit work and manage on SA.. I am not long from Canada Pension and Old Age Security. (I'm one of the old people in this boat!) Due to the government not forgiving student loans I will still have this debt hanging over my head after I turn 65. CBC you keep missing the boat on this subject! and.. to our MP's... how about putting some money into forgiving the old student loans. You forgive loans to third world countries.. even to Iraq. How about looking after some of your own citizens? ------------- Casey . . "A student loan is like a bad marriage, a lot easier to get ino then it is to get out!" |
polyhymnia61 wrote:Posted By: old hippy
Date Posted: 30/June/2007 at 3:31am
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YES! Consideration should be given to the VETERANS of the student loan system. In this fast paced, youth-oriented society, they seem too quick to brush us aside and get on to the next generation of student loan borrowers.
I have loans from 1989 and after grants were taken away....after recessions, Mike Harris welfare cuts while I was attempting to find employment...(Couldn't pay the rent after that!), women's shelters where I was counselled to have children so that I could "move up" to mother's allowance - I return to university to survive..and then more unemployment, minimum wage jobs, volunteer work to remain a productive member of society and keep my self-esteem - and then finally I'm allowed a job that I enjoy and pays enough so that I can hand over $460 mthly in interest-only payments on my loans that date back to 1989. It's been a rocky road and now, these loans remain as I approach retirement age.
I did not go through all this so that a greedy bank/gov't could profit indefinitely. I am still here and so are many other mature students. If the gov't wants to cast us aside and get on with the next generation - then cast aside our loans as well and leave us in peace....
Hippy
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