What does Ron Paul say about Department of Education

[Akus]

Someone has posted before that a potential voter who did not know of Ron Paul, after having been explained who he is, asked about her daughter not being able to go to college, because the government loan she'd go on would be cancelled by Ron Paul.

The posted was puzzled how to counter that. So was I.

I looked at the Ron Paul library and didn't find anything on the issue of the government subsidized education. I feel uncomfortable not being able to rebuttal this. Can some one link me to a place where Ron Paul specifically says what he'll do with the department of education and what will replace it and how will poor people afford to get an education in order not to be poor.

[JoshLowry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg

Forget where it's at in the video, but watch the whole thing if you haven't yet. He talks about this issue.

[Akus]

I've watched the video and he doesn't say, or doesn't say it plain enough, what is the parent to do when the tuition is not provided by the government and thus, his/her child is unable to attend college.

Can some one present the answer in the easy-packageable and marketable fasion?

[cac1963]

I've watched the video and he doesn't say, or doesn't say it plain enough, what is the parent to do when the tuition is not provided by the government and thus, his/her child is unable to attend college.

Can some one present the answer in the easy-packageable and marketable fasion?

Not sure if this is Paul's take or not, but my take is that loans, grants and scholarships will still be available through private sources, from educational foundations to college endowments to banks and credit unions. I got loans through my credit union when I was in college (early 80s).

[beermotor]

To say nothing of the fact that prices will go dramatically down when easy credit is removed from the picture!

Look at the Housing sector for a PRIME (or rather SUB PRIME? tee hee) example of that in action.

[Johnnybags]

To a student, let the freemarket take care of it, no government subsidies and he spoke at length about why costs are ridiculous, because of fiat money. He will restore some value to the dollar and thus keep prices from going crazy every year because the feds increase money supply to pay for foolishness abroad. Loan companies would emerge from the private sector. But for a simple explanation tell someone that its deficit spending and dollar creation that keeps costs soaring. The federal government policies alone are the problem and Ron wants to solve it.

[CodeMonkey]

It's hard for people to understand this, but college is not a God-given right. When the government pays for someones education, it really means that the taxpayers, some of whom never got to go to college themselves, are paying for it.

Another issue is that with government interference, the market doesn't work properly and prices go up year after year.

Aside from all this, federal funding is unconstitutional. States, local communities, and private institutions however are free to finance education as they please.

However, ending student loans isn't likely to happen under Paul, he states that it's low on his list of priorities. Also remember that with these types of programs he never intends to simply cut people off, but to create a transition to a better system.

[BarryDonegan]

that government loan can't be escaped by chapter 11.

she needs to stop taking the loan before she gets herself trapped in indentured servitude.

[1000-points-of-fright]

With Ron Paul's plan there would be no FEDERAL department of education or FEDERAL student loans. For some reason, people seem to forget that their cities, counties, and states have governments too. That's where all your grants, loans and regulation of education will come from along with private foundations, banks, charities, etc. Not the Feds.

[freelance]

Back in my day, our parents paid for college, we worked our way through college, we got a scholarship (a real one) or we deferred our education until we could pay for it.

Today, students get these scam loans (kind of like the subprime loans that were offered to unlikely home owners), and they spend a good deal of their adult lives paying off the debt. Worse, we just recently learned that the government was part of the whole scam, pushing the students toward the high-interest loans.

And guess what? Even under the old bankruptcy laws, the student loans were not discharged!

If you look at the job market for graduates today, what's the benefit of a lifetime of servitude for a diploma? Where's the payoff?

It certainly couldn't get any worse for prospective college students by eliminating govt-backed college loans. Once the free money is gone, watch the cost of college tuitions plummet.

[JS4Pat]

Can some one present the answer in the easy-packageable and marketable fasion?

I think the best explanation I’ve heard as to why Ron Paul wants to eliminate the Federal Department of Education is because its function and purpose is duplicated in each state. It’s not needed, it’s wasteful and it takes money that could have been utilized at the state and county level - where the people better understand what needs to be done. Dr. Paul wants to improve education in this country by shifting control from Washington DC to the States.

[specsaregood]

And just to echo what Ron Paul said in the google interview: "I don't think it is fair to expect somebody that could not go to college to pay for you to go to college."

As others have already said: why is the default assumption that if government loans weren't available; then no loans would be available. It would reintroduce the marketplace to college costs.

[BarryDonegan]

right now with less and less people paying directly for their education, and more and more people pushing it off with huge loans, the universities are able to jack up their prices. it seems as tho the prices have increased by 4x since i went to school in the late 90s.

tell them they wouldn't need the loans,and could afford to pay cash for school if the schools had to be accountable for their prices to a body of people who were paying real money.

[dude58677]

College is becoming more expensive because the Federal Reserve just keeps printing more money. The value of a dollar drops and prices go up in not just college tuition but also in everything else as well.

[Jennifer Reynolds]

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[angelatc]

With Ron Paul's plan there would be no FEDERAL department of education or FEDERAL student loans. For some reason, people seem to forget that their cities, counties, and states have governments too. That's where all your grants, loans and regulation of education will come from along with private foundations, banks, charities, etc. Not the Feds.

Don't forget employers. I went to college on my dime, then managed to get a job at a company that reimbursed tuition. It took me longer than 4 years, but I graduated debt free.

Dr Paul said he went to Medical school before there were federal student loans, and Duke loaned money, at 1%.

[Brandybuck]

One does not need the government to get a loan from a bank. It's absurd to think that in the absence of the Department of Education there would be no student loan.

There's also the states to consider. I managed to get through six years of college with *state* grants and loans. Since without the DoE, the states could keep more of their own taxpayers' money, such a move might actually increase total funds available to grant/loan to students!

[McDermit]

I don't know why people balk at the idea of having to work one's way through school. The sense of entitlement just blows my mind.

[Jennifer Reynolds]

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[maiki]

Im a foreigner, so I'm not entitled to government loans. I got loans and grants through my university, had a partial work study program, and was a member of a Credit union if I had needed more loans. I actually got a better deal tham most people operating under government loans. So yeah. It is not like the government is giving people free scholarships. Loans are not free money. And I've heard they are partially responsible for raising tuition to the insane levels they are at now.

[Sematary]

I've watched the video and he doesn't say, or doesn't say it plain enough, what is the parent to do when the tuition is not provided by the government and thus, his/her child is unable to attend college.

Can some one present the answer in the easy-packageable and marketable fasion?

If I understand RP correctly, the government would no longer be involved in education but would leave it to the states. All states have programs to help people in college and without the IRS taking a third of their incomes, people would have more money to put towards education. Plus, there are tons of scholarships, etc... to help people out.

[ThePieSwindler]

It is not a sense of entitlement. It is a sense of terror by the lower classes that without help they would never be able to qualify for a loan and thus be stuck in their ghetto neighborhoods for life.

And who can work through school and pay 35K a year for tuition, another 20k for room and board, and go to classes?

It ain't easy out there.


yeah but thats an issue with the entire system. Why give welfare when the dollar is worthless? Why get loans if the prices are ridiculously high? Why not just....lower the price? And its another case of taking money from someone to give to another - as Ron Paul says, why should those who DONT get to go to college have you pay for you or your daughter?Fix the system, don't try to put bandaids on it.

[Gee]

Do people use federal loans to go to college? I'd always thought private loans through credit unions, state scholarships and the like were more effective. Hell in Florida, the state will actually pay you to go to college if you have any sort of a decent GPA out of high school.

Anyways, state involvement in education is what keeps it so expensive. Private colleges must compete with state-sponsored institutions. This means they must do silly things like pay P.h.D.s to teach easy undergrad classes. Education should really be very cheap. This is the age of the internet after all, information is free. But the established colleges with state funding keep any advances in education from taking place.