Benefit by investing in people
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
To the editor:
In the wake of an injunction due to a lawsuit by six Republican governors, including Kim Reynolds of Iowa, President Biden’s proposed student debt forgiveness plan has been put on hold.
I would like to point out the way our nation has benefited in the past by investing in the people.
The most far reaching and important investment in the future was the GI Bill or Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, signed into law by President Roosevelt on June 22, 1941. Under the GI Bill veterans of World War II would receive the help that the veterans of World War I did not.
Among the benefits was the establishment of hospitals and stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools. In return the nation gained a generation of doctors, lawyers, teachers and skilled workers.
In 1947, 49% of college admissions were veterans, the GI Bill opened the door of higher education to the working class in a way never done before. Those who wished to continue their education in college or vocational school could do so tuition free up to $500 while also receiving a living stipend.
The GI Bill made low-interest mortgages available to the millions of returning servicemen and women.
At least one real estate developer, Fred Trump, the creator of the Trump empire, benefited from the GI Bill when he expanded into middle-income housing for the families of returning veterans.
Following the launching of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957, the nation realized that an educated populace was needed to keep pace with the Russians especially in science and mathematics.
In 1958, President Eisenhower and Congress passed the National Defense Education Act aimed at math and science education by making low cost loans available. Eventually the program would include teachers in fields other than math and science.
I was a recipient of a National Defense Education loan and following graduation in 1964, I was prepared to start loan repayment. As a beginning teacher, my salary was not all that great, making loan repayment a significant chunk of my income. But, later that year one of the Johnson Poverty programs resulted in my loan being forgiven.
I was teaching in a school with a significant number of low income students.
For those teachers who were lucky enough to receive a National Defense Education loan and then have it forgiven, I believe that the nation benefited as well. Just as we needed trained people in 1944 and in 1958, we need them in 2022 so it seems short sighted to burden this generation of young people with an unmanageable debt.
Today, forty-four million people owe over $1.5 trillion in debt primarily held by the US Department of Education. The Washington Center for Equitable Growth shows that “student loans are a burden for all earners,” including higher income learners such as doctors.
I would ask, as Iowans are struggling with student debts, how do the people of Iowa benefit from this lawsuit?
Mary Kathryn Gepner
Benton