We all know that the price tag for college puts a degree out of reach for many people, and for many others, the debt from student loans is very high. Lamar Alexander, US senator from Tennessee and former Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush, has a proposal for easing some of the burden. He lays out his ideas in this February 2019 essay from the New York Times.
Alexander, “Going to college should not be a financial albatross”
- Alexander has several specific proposals for making college more affordable for US students. What are they? Who would be responsible for putting Alexander’s plans into effect? Summarize his ideas. Has he provided sufficient evidence that his plans would achieve their goal? Why or why not?
- Alexander is the senior US senator from Tennessee, a seat he has held since 2003. What might have been his purpose in writing an essay for the New York Times? It’s not a Tennessee newspaper, and this is not an election year. Who is Alexander’s intended audience, and what is he trying to accomplish with his essay? Explain your reasoning.
- In his They Say, Alexander uses direct quotations as well as paraphrases. Select two examples of quotations by named persons, and discuss why Alexander might have chosen to use the person’s exact words rather than a paraphrase. Consult Chapter 3 of your text to help you respond.
- Alexander asserts that the best way to “help more low-income students attend college” would be to simplify the FAFSA, the form that students and families must complete. Certainly, no student or parent would ever object to making that form less of a headache, but would that simplification really accomplish all that Alexander claims it will? Think about all that’s been involved in your process of financing your college education. Reflect on your own experience and that of people you know and evaluate how far Alexander’s proposals would go toward achieving the goals that he puts forth. Using Alexander’s essay as your They Say, write an essay evaluating his proposals.
They Say I Blog 
Senator Alexander’s proposal of lowering tuition and creating an easier way to pay for our colleges seems to find favor with all students who suffer from school debt and those who cannot financially afford it. One of her notable points to me was her topic on making the financial aid process much easier. She taps into Fafsa, a common wide financial aid provided for students. The process getting approval for this and all that is required, makes it a heavy on students and a much more complicated step by step process. Her idea of creating easier and simpler ways to get approved for financial aid would encourage many more people who never attended college due to the lack of knowledge and the complexity of this financial aid process. There’s much that can be done to make the process more easy and friendly towards new students. Another one of her proposals is adding an employee paycheck deduction. This is a great way to keep forward progress for students to pay off their loans. Taxes and other credentials already are deducted from paychecks and adding a student loan option would allow students to easily pay their loans without any worries. I feel like this benefits businesses and companies to keep workers and ensure their staff are not shorted by leaves and many part time jobs. Working more helps the deductions from their paychecks as they are higher. These workers not only want to pay their debt but make some money to at least enjoy themselves. This will make them work more hours and be more consistent with their time and showings at work. One suggestion of mine I think would help is letting students pay their college tuitions after getting their degree. This would allow students to focus on school and not have to worry about financial aid, student loans and all others. In order to protect the schools and to ensure they pay for their debt towards the end, students must pay a fair amount of their tuition before getting their degree. After finishing college, they can go on to focus on how to take a loan out and pay their school off. I think separating the financials and studying would efficiently help students get their highest education and make paying their tuition more friendly.
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Alexander, in this article, proposes several plans to make college more affordable and easier to pay off that I feel with help college students. For example, he would like to implement a plan that has some similar aspects to paying off a mortgage. The student would choose over what span of time, be it 5 years or 10 years, where a comparatively small amount of money, will be deducted out of their salary each month depending on how much their salary is. I believe this plan would work out to be quite effective because it wouldn’t take all of their earnings out and it is an organized and simple way of paying off college debt. Some may argue that people won’t want money to come straight out of their salary but, this plan allows for a more organized, systematic, simple, way of paying of college debt without taking thousands of dollars out of what would be taken out of your salary anyway causing you to be out of control with how and when the money is used to pay it off. Alexander also proposes that the system for paying off loans and college debt as well as the financial aid system should be changed to make it easier to understand and more simple to accomplish. For many people the reason they aren’t paying off the debt, even when they have the money required to do so, is because the system for paying it off is far too complicated. To be able to achieve these plans he would need to get other senators, state education departments, and other leaders that can help change these outdated systems on board so that they can work through these ideas to make them a reality.
Alexander, by writing this opinion piece for The New York Times, in my opinion is trying to reach a larger audience. Alexander, a senator in Tennessee, may not be able to influence and reach out to a large audience. I believe his intended audience is to all college students and parents of students who want their children to eventually go to college. The information presented in this article is an issue many people, especially young adults, face today because without a college degree, many jobs and careers will deem the prospective employee as if they are unqualified. In many career paths that people take, without a college degree, they aren’t qualified for that job, for example a nurse or a doctor. But the problem remains, many young people feel that they cannot afford to go to college to earn a degree or they worry about paying off the debt they accumulate because of college.
I believe Alexander’s assertions about making FAFSA forms and other methods of receiving financial aid easier to help and encourage low income families send their children to college to be true. Simplifying these forms will make it all that much easier for these families to apply and receive financial aid because as it stands, these forms are complicated and very time consuming which turns people away. Helping more young adults earn a degree and finding a career will not only benefit the individual but it would also put more people to work which will, in turn, boost our economy and lead to more successful and financially stable adults.
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Alexander believes that the best way to “help more low-income students attend college” would be to simplify the FAFSA. For myself, I had to file the FAFSA on my own, not understanding the tax documents. It gave me a great amount of discouragement. Not only is filing the FAFSA a hassle itself, but they want you to send in a bunch of documents. As of right now, financial aid is still asking me for more documents, some seeming very unnecessary. After handing in said documents and having them processed, I end up being asked to send in more, thus leading me to not get all the aid I need. But the most stressful part of it all, is having to pay for school.
Although I do believe simplifying the FAFSA would help the situation, I don’t believe it is the best way. I believe that in general, college should be made more affordable. A student may feel very discouraged to go to school, because they don’t understand the process and might have to do it all on their own; fill the application on their own, pay for school on their own. Not only should we simplify the FAFSA, but we must also make it easier to obtain scholarships. We need to have more education on college education in schools as well. We should find ways to help students understand how loans really work, help them apply for financial aid and to school and help them with their documents they need to send in. Holding workshops for parents to help understand the financial process for college would be very beneficial for the students and their family. More insightful college seminars should be presented since it can be a struggle to find out which college or university is the right fit for a person. Applying for financial aid is not the only burden that comes with attending college.
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I think the purpose for Alexander writing an article for The New York Times was to reach people about an issue he cares about and to gain support from people not just in Tennessee. I don’t know if simplifying the FAFSA application will do too much good a lot of that information is really needed to show the financial state of the applicant and it helps school know what types of scholarships they should be giving out.
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Congressman Lamar Alexander has taken notice of our troubled education system and demographic of frustrated college graduates. He deciding something had to be done. Some of his solutions are to not have loans impact credit score, offer better loan repayment systems, promote lower tuition among schools, and expand FASFA to be more inclusive for future college students. In this NYT article, Alexander speaks to anyone who feel his plan would help them or those who think it is important in hopes that it will drum up bipartisan support for the bill he has sponsored. In the beginning of his article, Alexander attempts to tap into the pain that many college graduates feel by quoting another person burdened by debt.
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I agree with what Alexander is saying. The costs of a college education are ridiculous and full rides are rarely given out and barely given to students who are at the top of their high school graduating class. Most people don’t pay back their loans for decades after graduating college which is a huge problem in all of this. The idea that Alexander proposes about calculating your income and figuring out how large of a payment you can afford without struggling is a good idea. I feel that people often want to overpay to get their debt gone as soon as possible but then they often struggle with their daily life essentials. This type of budgeting is important as an adult who may or may not have a family or just take care of themselves.
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Alexander proposes that the application for FASFA should be less complex to fill out, which would keep families from avoiding the “chilling maze” that keeps them from applying for federal aid. Alexander’s second proposal is to change the system of how students pay off their loans reducing complexity and time.Two methods are offered one is deducting a monthly payment from an employee’s paycheck. His final proposal is a new data base to keep track of students payments to ensure that they are paying the loan off. This new system would hold the college board accountable. This would decrease the amount of students that could enroll with federal aid and lower tuition. Congress and education boards would be responsible for putting these proposals into effect. I do believe that Alexander proposed sufficient alternatives that would help people pay off their student loans in an effective manner and reduce debt. Although college can not be provided to us at no cost I do believe that all of these proposals were thought out and should be looked over by congress to make this process easier in years to come.
After reading Alexander’s article it has been concluded that he feels that the FASA application and student loan system is too complicated which drives students away from college and financial aid. His intended audience is the Federal government. In order to get these proposals into action Alexander needed to direct his words to government because they are in charge of the bank systems and financial aid. The purpose of the proposals would be to reduce stress on teens and parents as they are going through the process. Alexander wrote this in New York Times because it’s not just a problem in Tennessee but in our nation as one and he feels that it is important and should be brought to everyone’s attention.
(1) “The number of applicants for student aid would go up by about two million a year, according to Kim Cook of the National College Access Network. The former president of Southwest Community College in Memphis told me he loses 1,500 students each semester who are discouraged by the chilling maze of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form.”
(2) “Professor Susan Dynarski at the University of Michigan calls the nine different ways of repaying student loans “a rigid, archaic payment system that unnecessarily plunges millions into financial distress.”
Alexander used the exact quotes to convince his audience and make it look accurate by having highly authorized people mention factual data based on his argument.
Alexander’s article is about reducing the complexity of federal aid applications and reducing the time it takes to pay off student loans. Although the proposals presented are a pleasure it would effect the expected family contribution (EFC) which is a driving factor that determines how much your family is expected to pay out of pocket. If the federal aid application is reduced not much of a financial state will be provided which makes the aid pointless. From experience of seeing two siblings go through this process I do think this will reduce stress and drive more people to attending colleges and universities. In conclusion I am completely in favor of his proposals but we also have to remember the flaws that come with it.
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In the article “Going to college should not be a financial albatross” by Alexander, is proposing ideas that would make it easier for people to start going into college and not have the thoughts of “can I afford going to college” or “will it be worth going” circling around the thought of college. Alexander gives out three proposals to help lighten the burden of student debt, make it easier for families to apply for financial aid, make tuition cost less and also to give colleges an accountability system to protect the programs that help enroll college students with financial aid. In my opinion, making college tuition cheaper is something that should come into effect, to help families with low-income to become motivated in going to college. Then, making the FAFSA application less complicated will also motivate families to apply for aid and go to college. The author is trying to gain some traction in having more people talk about how to make college more affordable and approachable towards everyone that wants to go to college.
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In this article, Lamar Alexander informs the reader about the burden of college tuition as the text progresses; Alexander proposes ideas for making college affordable for students. He firstly lists that the application process is overwhelming, scaring most applicants away to reduce this tension eliminating these unnecessary questions from the form may help low-income students attend college. Alexander’s second proposal is to replace the student loan repayment system with monthly payments that would be deducted from an employees’ paycheck. The other option would consist of a ten-year repayment plan with equal monthly payments similar to a mortgage. Alexander’s third proposal is to create a new accountability system for college programs based on if students are repaying their loans. The federal government would be in charge of making this plan useful.
Senators can propose ideas on student loans and their benefits. Alexander is trying to catch the eye of the federal government and scholars that affected by this problem.
Alexander uses multiple quotes in his article to strengthen his claim. “ Professor Susan Dynarski at the University of Michigan calls the nine different ways of repaying student loans “ a rigid, archaic payment that unnecessarily plunges millions into distress” Alexander used this quote from a college professor to get a different point of view from someone that sees what scholars go through working with them daily. Alexander using the professor’s exact words provides more sympathy and realistic intake to the text.
Shortening the form will simplify the process and stress of the application process
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In his essay “Going to college should not be a financial albatross,” senator Lamar Alexander explains the burden of students who have to take loans to pay for their college tuition. Also, he mentions the difficult questions those students have to ask themselves before making that big decision of pursuing a college degree. Later in the article, the senator proposes two solutions that would make the decision to pursue a college degree more manageable. Alexander proposes that the application for FAFSA should be simplified from 108 questions to only 24 because the application’s complexity makes it harder for low-income families to apply. The number of personal and financial questions discourage students from applying. I totally agree with alexander on reducing the FAFSA application questions because personally, it took me weeks to complete the application. Also, I am procrastination in filling the application again for the new year because of the amount of time it takes to fill it and the difficult questions I have to answer.
Furthermore, Alexander’s second proposal was to fix the system that students use to pay student loans. He presented two options as to how students should pay back the loans. The options are that the loans should be paid directly from the employees’ paycheck, but the amount can only be deducted from the part of the paycheck that comes under discretionary income, and only 10 percent can be deducted. Another option is that students’ loans should be treated as a house mortgage, and a fixed amount has to be paid monthly over the course of 10 years. With those options, students’ loan borrowers will be obligated to pay back. It won’t be a nightmare for them because they will have to plan ahead of time, prepare money for their next payment, or taken from their paycheck automatically. Also, now students won’t have to struggle in planning to pay the loan back because a plan has already has been in place. Those options are great, making the process of paying back loans easier and giving students more confidence in pursuing a college degree. In order for his solutions to go into effect, the senator said that he is working with the senate’s education committee to show them his ideas. Hopefully, his work gets accepted by other senators. I feel like the senator has sufficient evidence that his plan would work because, in his essay, he showed statists of the effect the reducing of the FASSA questions would have on the number of people applying. For the second, solutions he didn’t have enough evidence to show his solutions of taking the loan money directly from the paycheck work, but it sounds like a good idea.
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There are many people who give up college education because of its high cost. The interest on student loan is rather high and may take years to pay off the debt and the interest. Lamar Alexander, US senator from Tennessee and former Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush proposes some idea to ease some of the tuition burden in an essay “Going to college should not be a financial albatross” from New York Times.
I completely agree with Alexander. I have some classmates from high school who do not even apply for college because they are not able to afford the tuition that is rising from year to year. In the essay, Alexander proposes to alter the student loan process because it is complicated. I think the FASFA form only requires people to fill in basic information and necessary financial information. Distributing student loans or scholarship should be a cautionary process that requires careful filling out information.
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I agree with the author point of view. Over the years, the cost of attending colleges has increased tremendously. I know students may not have the funds to pay for college but they can apply for grants to help them.
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I believe with this article and with the author’s points how college is expensive and how for many people they are not able to afford to further themselves academically if people want to go to a higher level of education passed high school it shouldn’t be a big burden of money to continue many people having collage debts causes them to be held back in life instead of saving money to get things like a house or a car they are behind paying student loans there has to be a easier way to be able to attend collage that doesn’t effect us the students financial futures. Finding a solution i believe it can help the country by having more people going to school and filling jobs to better contribute to society .
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