Maybe you can find the courage to explain to our 2012 college grads how we let the banks and universities steal their future. I certainly can't.
Ask yourself this:
Why doesn't Florida have a task force devoted to taking on the greed merchants of secondary education? Why, instead, are we out there looking for a way to raise tuition on young people shackled with so few job prospects and so many college loans they don't dare graduate?
Just out this past weekend, an analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press says it all: More than half of last year's grads holding bachelor's degrees are unemployed or underemployed.
Jobless means what it says. Underemployed generally means a four-year degree, a $25,000 to $50,000 college loan debt and a job working as a bartender, food server or truck driver.
"You can make more money on average if you go to college, but it's not true for everybody," says Harvard economist Richard Freeman in the AP story, noting the growing risk of a debt bubble with total U.S. student loan debt surpassing $1 trillion. It's a tough market out there for young people beginning their lives in deep debt, he says.
Talk to Florida college students ready to graduate. If you're over age 40, you may not be acquainted with what they've been through.
Picture a student's six-year odyssey. Picture a particular student. Picture Dean Struempf, 25, who will finish Florida State University in December with a graduate degree in education -- but still the need to complete teacher training.
Like other students, Dean had to pay for tuition, fees, health insurance and living expenses. He's helped himself over the years, working part-time as a server, bouncer and tiler/landscaper. But some semesters were too full to keep up with part-time employment. So he did the only thing he could do -- take out college loans.
He has 13 of them. Thirteen student loans since September 2005 for a total of $39,767 -- and likely there will be more by December.
All but one of them was provided through the Florida Department of Education/Sallie Mae. The interest rate on those is 6.8 percent.
Dean showed me how easy it is to get a student loan. In 25 seconds flat he applied for -- and received -- $5,000 for the next semester. All he did was punch up the FAFSA website -- "Free Application for Federal Student Aid" -- filling in his name, Social Security number and credits for the semester -- and click ... The money flowed straight into his account.
Early on, Dean didn't plan to teach, he wanted to work in research, in a laboratory. He got his bachelor of science degree in marine biology.
"You have six months to get a job before you have to start paying back your college loans," he explained. "So I went out looking for a job. I went to labs all over the state, but they didn't need me. They all had free labor -- undergrads working out their two years of independent study in the private sector.
"If I had chosen to stay in, to not graduate, I could have had one of those lab internships. I didn't do it the right way."
Dean said he's OK with teaching. Better than OK. "I really believe I can make a difference in kids' lives as a schoolteacher," he said. "The school system in Florida needs science and math teachers. The question is, will I earn enough money to pay off my college loans and still have a life until they are?"
Meanwhile, in Gainesville, University of Florida senior Joline Caldwell says she's looking to join the military. "Or maybe going for another degree. I've looked around, I've written dozens of letters, there's not much work for me as a psychology major."
Caldwell, 22, has to pay back eight college loans for a total of $30,850. Like all students with loan debt, she must begin making payments in six months. That's all the time she has to find a job in a market disinterested in her major.
Barry Levine, about to graduate at the University of Central Florida, said he wants to be positive, but "Let's face it, my degree is in sociology. What now? Cop work? FBI maybe?" Levine has $26,000 in student loans, but that's not all. "I also have $12,000 in credit card debt I have to pay off"
He said, "I'm going to wear a sign around my neck that reads, 'Ask me if my sociology degree is worth the $40,000 it's going to cost me into my old age.' I'm betting next year at this time I'll be tending bar at some Hooters near Universal Studios."
How do we give young people starting their lives after college a fighting chance?
There are a lot of possibilities, but one of the best-looking right now is a bill currently in Congress, HR 4170 -- a resolution that will go further than wiping out student debt. It is a structured program to allow students and former students to reach a point where they no longer need to pay.
The way HR 4170 works is, if students make loan payments equal to 10 percent of their discretionary income for 10 years, their remaining federal student loan debt will be forgiven.
Consider the profound and meaningful implications for so many, not just in Florida, but throughout the country.
One of the best things about HR 4170 is that it forgives debt while still holding the debtors accountable. It's a marriage of responsibilities -- the governments to protect the future of its citizens and the citizens to their loans.
This is the start we need. There are too many people, from undergraduates to doctoral-level students, who will accumulate enough debt to keep them paying into their AARP years.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
