Featured Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Member - Help my friend Gail!

Gail is a strong supporter and reliable volunteer for the Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement. She's the featured member this week, and I want to give thank her for her dedication and continued help. It's members like her who inspire me to continue fighting the good fight.

C: Where did you go to school?

G: International Academy of Design & Technology (IADT), Tampa Florida.

C: Why did you pursue the degree(s) you have now or will soon have?

G:  I have worked in a field that I fell into at a young age, and I was never happy in, and worked at least 1 often 2 jobs for many years to survive. With my kids grown and gone I decided to pursue the education and career that I had always had a passion for and a talent in. I now have a BFA in Interior Design. I graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2006. Since graduating I have only worked 18 months due to lay offs and never made more than 28k per year.

C: What is your day-to-day life like as a result of your student loan debt?

G: I wake up to the Sallie Mae alarm clock. They call faithfully at 8:10 am every day. They tell me how many days delinquent I am and I tell them I am still unemployed and broke just like yesterday.I then spend about 4 hours on the computer searching for and applying for jobs. I can't afford to visit anyone due to gas prices and my limited income., so I rarely leave the house. I write letters to government officials and read Cryn's blog and Robert's every day, along with other articles posted by the FSLDM.

C: Do you regret going to school?

G: I do not regret it. I loved school and studied and worked very hard. I enjoyed being in school again, especially for something I am so passionate about. However, I do regret going to the school I went . . . I feel there are probably less expensive alternatives in schools that actually deliver on their promises. 

C: What do you have to offer an organization/company, and why should they hire you?

G: I have a lot of experience in multiple aspects of the design world. I can perform at an above average level in, but not limited to, the following areas: budget/bookeeping, project coordinator [roles], furniture design, space planning, AutoCad and sales. I am also willing to travel anytime. I would be an asset to any firm because I can wear so many "hats" and always give 110%.

C: Why are you a supporter of the Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement, i.e., what drew you to it the most?

G: I support FSLDM because they give me hope that there is still a small glimmer of light that I may actually get through this bone-crushing debt through forgiveness!

C: If you could meet with President Obama and discuss your student loan debt situation, what would you discuss? 

G: I would like to ask 2 questions:

1.When is the government going to get out of bed with Sallie Mae and NelNet and start protecting the educated poor of this country.

2. The President has constantly pushed for moms to go back to school, get an education and now that we have, we are unemployed, broke and have the most unbelievable debt . . . . What do you suggest we do now?

 

If you would like to be featured on Education Matters, please email me at ccrynjohannsen@gmail.com. 

 

Call to Action - We want YOU! Please go and post to support Dr. Oberg

A few posters who responded to the lawsuit filed by Dr. Jon Oberg are saying he's done it for his own selfish interests and referring to him derisively as a "whistleblower." He was in fact a researcher who discovered some serious loopholes that allowed lenders like Nelnet and Sallie Mae to rob the treasury of billions of dollars - OUR tax dollars!

Please, please go and post here to support Dr. Oberg. He was, and is, a courageous man - he's on our side and has always been an advocate for students.

Thanks for your help! It will only take a few minutes to set up an account and share your support!

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED - Sallie Mae mounting opposition against our movement!

Sallie Mae has come out with an aggressive ad campaign. They are claiming that American jobs are going to be lost as a result of reforming the lending industry. Funny thing is - Sallie Mae happily SHIPPED low-paying jobs to India and the Philippines when they had no concerns about being regulated. Read all about it in this Rolling Stone article.

They are posting ads like this and this across the U.S. Let's shift gears for a moment and write to Sallie Mae, and cc your representatives. Let Sallie Mae know that they aren't fooling anyone. If they had the chance to take these jobs offshore, as they have done, they would do it again. We, on the other hand, are saying NO! We are demanding that this industry (who has the second strongest lobbying groups behind that of defense contractors on the Hill!) be regulated.

So, far I have these email addresses for Sallie Mae:

Their concern for saving Delaware jobs - info@protectdelawarejobs.com
Their love for helping Floridians keep their low-paying jobs - info@protectfloridajobs.com

Here's my email to them:

Dear (Clever) Sallie Mae Marketers:

Wow, this new pitch is quite clever. However, it doesn't have me fooled. Here's my hunch too - I betcha there are thousands and thousands of others who aren't buying it. But I gotta hand it to you. Creating class conflict between your Delawarian employees (who probably make terrible wages) and us is quite smart! 

Oh, and please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ms. C. Cryn Johannsen, and I am a promotional writer and marketer for Mr. Applebaum's Forgive Student Loan Debt movement. (And so you are aware, our movement on Facebook is nearing 227,00 members!). I am also a blogger and am uncovering many stories about the corrupted and broken lending industry to which you obviously belong.

Today, I'm carrying out my own media campaign. Let's call it: contra Sallie Mae.

I've corrected your ad and let everyone know that it really should read: "Save low-paying SALLIE MAE jobs." I find it hard to understand that you feign to care so much about Delawarians. Is that really true? After all, when there wasn't any pressure on the student lending industry, Sallie Mae gladly sent jobs off-shore to India and the Philippines - that way, those already low-paying jobs in the U.S. got even lower. Bravo (Crickets chirping). Based upon your interest in making oodles of money for your company, you were smart in doing just that. But now that there's push for change and a new administration in office who takes issue with welfare subsidies to companies like your own, you're pulling out all the stops. I understand you're creating 2,000 jobs here in the good ol' U.S. of A.

I have news for you: people don't want call center jobs!

They deserve, instead, access to affordable higher education. Your industry has found a gold mine (bilking students), and as a result you have created a new class - the indentured educated class. But many of us refuse to believe that we are indentured servants. (After all, we did go to school and learned a few things).

Our movement represents a bright light of hope in a dark sewer of hell that you're company created. Our movement is based upon truth and transparency, and those are things Sallie Mae doesn't get. You, my friends, are the villains in this tale. Many, many people across this country are realizing that too. It's not a good time to have a dubious record - and your company certainly does. As you know, Americans are pretty tired of companies like Sallie Mae reaping all the benefits.

I look forward to spreading the truth about your company's mission.

Sincerely,


Ms. C. Cryn Johannsen

Ruminations on Sallie Mae's recent survey

Many of you have probably seen the recent stories in the mainstream press about a really, I mean, really (ahem) "reliable" survey  that claims borrowing for college is purportedly down and that most families, as one blogger claimed, are "paying for [it] just fine." Well guess who put out that survey? That's right! You guess it . . . good ol' Sallie Mae!

In a word, these "news" stories are based upon a shallow survey that Sallie Mae put out (they hired Gallup to carry it out). Here they are:

a) NYT  put out "Survey Finds that Many Families Don't Borrow For College" - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/survey-finds-that-many-families-dont-borrow-for-college/#comment-16123

b) NPR's "Fewer Students Borrow for College? Those Who Do Spend More" - http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/08/college_students_borrowing.html

c) Chronicle of Higher Education (hereafter I will refer to it as CHE) - "Fewer Than Half of Families Paid for Undergraduate Education with Loan This Past Year, Survey Finds." - http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/survey-finds-that-many-families-dont-borrow-for-college/#comment-16123



Here are my questions to these reporters and their media outlets:

1) Why are you being used for ulterior motives?

2) Why won't you reveal sources?  Don't you owe that to your readers?

3) Why are these major news outlets just putting out self-serving information that protects the interests of Sallie Mae and other lenders? This survey is weak, and Tim Ranzetta, who researches and writes for Student Lending Analytics, provides an excellent explanation about its faults here. (Just one little piece of information - the survey had 800 students and 804 parents who participated. I know - silly me! And here I was also trained to be a social scientist - that's a large pool of people and you can therefore make some solid conclusions about trends).

4) I brought up a similar question here, when Ms. Kim Clark wrote an article about the College Board in U.S. News & World Report. Ms. Clark described the College Board as "an organization for colleges," but I later told my readers that that was not entirely accurate. So, I wish to ask Ms. Clark :why didn't she inform her readers that the College Board had been a lender until 2007? (Ms. Clark doesn't care what her readers post, and I have not heard back from her yet - I sent her an email about a week ago).

5) Why aren't these media outlets referring to reliable sources like TICAS?

If this student loan situation isn't really a problem, then answer this question: why does it resonate with hundreds of thousands of people? If the critics don't like our approach and our proposal, I ask them then: what would you suggest we change? How can we meet and discuss this in order to protect those who matter most - the students?

A single woman like Gina Moss should not have to be kicked out of her small and rented apartment, WITH A YOUNG CHILD, in order to pay loans back to Sallie Mae.Gina Moss is not alone. Her story is one that is being experienced over and over and over again in this country. That's why we MUST ask for real change NOW!

More on Gina Moss, the Dept. of Education, and the Obama Administration later . . .

Part II of the Resurrection of the Dept. of Ed. G-man and America's Collective Trauma

The archival dust from the binary system operating behind this clean-looking computer has settled. With the dust particles settling into their cozy crevices, additional clarity about Oberg's heroism as a civil servant at the DOE emerges.

On a side note, but nevertheless important, one reader pointed out that the story I've told so far skewers Republicans, and therefore might imply that I believe the Democrats are not involved in this mess. That's far from the case. This student lending crisis is a systemic problem. Its center, sadly, reveals the darker side of politics, universities, and very powerful lobbying groups. All groups know how to mobilize with great efficiency. Operating around the vortex of money and power, their mobilization efforts have sucked in a slew of unfortunate victims: working- and middle-class students and their families. Those who graduate now know that they are a new class - the educated indentured class.

Luckily, Oberg was not sucked into the structure of misinformation. As a result of seeing things clearly, he uncovered a gaping hole that allowed lenders to take millions of dollars in subsidies and line their own pockets.

Case in point: Sallie Mae's CEO, Albert Lord, made a pretty penny. Here, for example, Jeffrey H. Birnbaum wrote an article in the Washington Post in 2007 and rhetorically asked, "How much wealth [did Lord acquire as a CEO]?"

Answer:" Lord, 61, has been building his own private 18-hole golf course on 244 acres in Anne Arundel County, an hour's drive from downtown Washington. He was well-heeled enough to spearhead a serious-but-unsuccessful bid to purchase the District's new professional baseball team, the Nationals."

(Question is: did he finish that private golf course and should he acquire more land in Anne Arundel County? 244 acres - isn't that a small spread? I worry that he might not be making enough money to survive. I also worry that Lord might be suffering from his own personal trauma, and has frantically been building things for leisure to escape the nasty skeletons in his own childhood closet).

The dutiful civil servant, Oberg, worried about the loophole(s). He couldn't stop worrying about it. The slumber induced by collective trauma did not make Oberg drowsy. There's also another issue to digest. It's related to the 9.5% return on loans. however, this type of awakening and the lessons we are all learning about this corrupted system means that I will provide this piece of the story later. If you want to read about it now and are prepared, go to the original blog I'm referencing here. Rest assured, the 9.5% issue will be covered.

Returning to the hula hoops loopholes that the lenders slithered and continue to slither through, it turns out that Nelnet benefited too. And so the treasury was feeding Nelnet and Sallie Mae with millions and millions of dollars. Indeed, these were hungry, hungry student-lending-pythons. In fact, an audit review, which was finally carried out (years after Oberg discovered the problem) showed that the department needed to recover $278 million dollars from Nelnet.
The money was not recovered. Nelnet agreed to the blockage of the subsidies. End of that leakage-story. Right? No. They continued to find loopholes and managed to slither through.

Oberg didn't like that. He was doing his job, and yet was being told not to. Congress tried to take care of the other subsidies that allowed the lenders to fatten themselves up (pythons are hungry creatures). In 1997 the Clinton Administration tried to cut off all subsidies and end this systemic problem.

At that juncture in his career, Oberg was an Educational liaison to Congress. He approached Sally Stroup about this legislation. At the time Stroup was acting as senior aide to the Republican chairman of the House education committee.

Oberg speaks of their meeting, 'Sally told me there was no way that language was coming out. . . . She didn't give me a reason -- just forget it.' Sally, who was clearly acting as an advocate for students, went onward and upward in politics. She became an assistant secretary of education in the Bush administration.

Bite that off, digest it, and come back for some more later . . .