I was trying to decide between the 4-inch mosquito now in the southeast or the student loan crisis. I decided the studen loan crisis effects more people. The 4-inch mosquito is a hurricane thing. The mosquito has been dormant for 40 years and then came water in abundance.
But, the student loan crisis is taking on a profile I didn't expect. What if the idea of a student loan has become too toxic that worthy students refuse them?
That is exactly what I ran across. A very gifted young man, now 19 years old has left a preferred university for medical students. He has not dissolved the idea of becoming a neurologist, just engages education differently.
He worked a job while in high school and was accepted to the university he wanted most to attend. He was able to pay the tuition for the first semester from his years of earnings. When it came to paying for the second semester he didn't have enough money and neither did his family. He took a one-semester break and worked that Spring Semester and into the summer. He thought for sure he would have enough to return to his education in the Fall of 2019.
He didn't. He also refused to take out student loans because they have become a stigma in the real world of young adults. What he has decided instead of attending undergraduate work at the university; he is going to carry out a two year program that is transferable to the university at the local community college.
I have nothing against Community Colleges. But, in this case a 19 year old man is giving up his university education for something that will transfer credits. He has already delayed his goals by 8 months and now it is uncertain he will return to the university. He has to take two years of basic education and then reapply to the university where he was once accepted.
This is wrong. As a society, we have to realize educating our brain trust is MANDATORY. We cannot allow such stigmas to be attached to student loans and we cannot allow deserving young adults to derail their own careers because they can't pay cash.
The Student Loan debt is a significant problem and MUST be discussed in the 2020 election. If this goes on much longer, we will not only have a continued General Practitioner shortage, we will be losing those entering into specialties. The student loan crisis is real, takes on many faces and it is time, along with the climate crisis to take center stage with candidates and their solutions to return function to our higher education.
The Student Loan crisis with it's stigma and enormity is erasing OPPORTUNITY.
BY CHOICE.
We must do better. Depression is not an option.
September 16, 2019
By Jenifer McKim
Luke Tang was heading into the spring of freshman year (click here) at Harvard College in 2015 when he attempted to take his own life.
The youngest son of Chinese immigrants survived the attempt and was quickly sent by Harvard to a psychiatric facility. To return to his studies, school officials required that the 19-year-old sign a contract promising to follow his doctors’ treatment plan.
But Tang did not keep up with mental health services after going away for the summer. And Harvard officials apparently did not check up with him in the fall. About two weeks after arriving on campus, Tang killed himself in the basement of his college dormitory....
