According to a federal government agency, student loan debt in the US surpassed 1 trillion dollars “several months ago.” The finding, reported by a spokesman for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to a banking conference in Austin, Texas on Wednesday, is “much larger” (in his words) than other recent estimates.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued a study in early March suggesting that the total student debt had reached $870 billion. The new figure is 16 percent higher than that estimate. This staggering amount is greater than the total owed by Americans on their credit cards or auto loans.
The CFPB announcement, which signifies that a considerable portion of the younger generation will be condemned to decades of debt, will not create a ripple within the American political and media establishment.
In Los Angeles, California, the state governing board of Santa Monica Community College has introduced a two-tiered system to charge several times more for high-demand classes.
Certain classes will now be offered at a rate of $220 per unit. This is nearly five times the average per unit rate, which is slated to increase from $36 to $46 beginning this summer.
The new scheme is unprecedented and will serve to effectively price many working class student out of the most important classes, and therefore out of the college altogether.
The moves in Santa Monica will likely become a model for colleges throughout the state and country. There is a coordinated attack on public education throughout California and at the federal level, with colleges and universities at all levels being starved of funding.
The emergency manager of the Detroit Public Schools announced March 13 the next stage in the destruction of public education in Detroit, presenting a list of 15 schools, including six high schools, which will be removed from DPS at the end of the current school year and transferred to the state-run Education Achievement System.
Roy Roberts, the former GM executive who came out of retirement to take the $250,000-a-year position as emergency manager, designated Central, Denby, Henry Ford, Mumford, Pershing and Southeastern high schools as “low-performing,” as well as nine middle and elementary schools.
The EAS and its overseer, the Education Achievement Administration, were established with much fanfare last summer by Roberts and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, as a state-sponsored alternative supposedly designed to improve “failed” public schools.
