WSU MUP Student
Cyburbian
- Messages
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Hear, here!
I'll also add that the GI Bill before the "Post 911" version sort of sucked for a couple of decades anyway since it in no way kept up with the rising costs of college tuition through the '90s and early '00s.
I got out of the Marines (the first time) in 2001 and the few hundred bucks I got each month while I was a full time student was not enough to come close to covering tuition at any of the schools I attended, let alone books/supplies, housing, meals, etc. Even with some scholarships/grants and working about 32 hours a week, I still had thousands of dollars in student debt for undergrad and then about another $35,000 in student debt from grad school as my GI Bill benefits had long since ran out.
Thankfully, I've worked in the public sector long enough that last year (or maybe it was 2020 now? Everything runs together over the last few years) I was able to take advantage of the PSLF program and have my remaining loan balances forgiven.
Veteran or not, I hate the argument of "I paid my way and so should everybody else! blah blah blah" which basically boils down to, "My life sucked so yours should too!" If we have the opportunity to make life easier for a group of people, I'm all for it. We can argue until we're blue in the face about the fiscal realities of whether or not we have that opportunity, but that's a different question.
In the end, I'm all in favor of forgiving huge chunks of student loans but I think that should be tied into some sort of legislation that works to fundamentally change how much higher education costs on the front end.
