Unpaid Student Loans In Tennessee? Geniuses May Take Away Your Prof'l License
The smartypants at the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation have a bright idea about how to get people to pay their student loans: Take away their professional license.
Yes, that's right -- make it impossible for people to work in the likeliest legal way for themto make money.
That'll show 'em!
Chris Butler writes at Watchdog:
Default on your loans and the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation will find you and contact the respective state boards, which can suspend your license....Tennessee law had never applied to Rebecca Lindeman, who is from Pennsylvania and now disabled. She doesn't like the law.
"Given these times I think it's unfair if you're making an effort to pay them," said Lindeman, who had to get a license from the federal government to work as a veterinary technician.
"Student loans are ridiculously high. I know I owed more on mine before I became disabled and, before they were forgiven, I owed more on them than I did on buying my house. Without the disability forgiveness I would have lost everything."
TSAC spokeswoman Jane Pennington said state officials only take action after trying to reach out to the borrower for 270 days.
And no, government never sends the bill to the wrong address or anything. Just like the IRS would never hang up on, oh, 8.1 million confused citizens calling with tax questions.
Just like Detroit never shuts off the water of one guy because some other guy entirely didn't pay his bill.
Here's a problem with these student loans in general. If I'm going to buy a house and want a loan, they do some sort of look-seeing to make sure there's some possibility the loan will be repaid.
Not so with student loans.
Want to get your Ph.D. in underwater Tibetan feminist basketweaving? Well, here's a pile of money!
Until that changes -- until loans are tied to likelihood of their being paid back, well, there's going to be a lot of defaulting.
P.S. Basketweaving is hard as fuck. I actually went to a summer of art school at the University of Michigan. As far as I can remember, I don't think I was entirely driven to basketweave; I think I just thought it funny to say I'd taken that class, and figured I'd get something out of it.
via @radleybalko
Did you get some nice baskets out of it? Might be a useful skill if the apocalypse comes, donna need something to put your gathering in!
NicoleK at April 23, 2015 12:11 AM
I suck at basketmaking, but thanks for asking. It is seriously hard! Which I found hilarious, considering it's the thing people reach for to say something's easy.
Amy Alkon at April 23, 2015 4:54 AM
In Michigan, parents behind on child support are held in jail until they pay significantly on their arrearage. Same great logic. I lost 2 of my 3 jobs when I got caught up in that net (I wasn't a deadbeat, but dead broke). Oh, and the arrearage came from a horrible decision by a judge that changed the Friend of the Court decision that I was over $10K overpaid to $21K behind.
I got arrested while I was CURRENT on the payment order that had already seen me pay down the arrearage by nearly half. While in jail, my arrearage increased, since I had no income, and as a result of losing the extra jobs, I could only keep current and not pay on the arrearage. In an ironic twist, had I been jailed for anything other than child support, I would have been granted an automatic freeze on child support payments during my stay as a guest of the county, and given bail that would have allowed me to keep working and making those insane payments. Gotta love government logic.
Gary G at April 23, 2015 8:48 AM
Gary G, according to the government logic, you should have gone out and robbed a bank.
Cousin Dave at April 23, 2015 8:55 AM
Cousin Dave, the thought crossed my mind, as one of the other provisions of this wonderful law is that it is a statutory crime, meaning you aren't allowed to mount a defense. To avoid a felony, you could commit one and try not to get caught.
Gary G at April 23, 2015 9:09 AM
I suck at basketmaking, but thanks for asking. It is seriously hard! Which I found hilarious, considering it's the thing people reach for to say something's easy.
Posted by: Amy Alkon at April 23, 2015 4:54 AM
________________________________
Depends which type of basket you mean, maybe. I made a few before I was ten.
But...from the late, great Quentin Crisp's one-man show:
"Well, it’s all right if you’re going to learn how to sing or dance. People who have learnt to sing always have richer, rounder voices. People who have learnt to dance always have bigger, bolder gestures. But as for pottery and basket weaving – what good are these? As soon as the doors of the evening institution clang shut behind you, you’re back where you started. On the way home you might get into an argument on a street corner and you’re left saying 'Well I can’t express myself – you’ll have to see my baskets.' "
lenona at April 23, 2015 10:38 AM
Well, that's a great way to make sure the loans are repaid. Just revoke the professional license that they were using to make their income.
Patrick at April 23, 2015 1:24 PM
There is one sure way to fix the student loan and debt system. Remove banks and the gov't from it. If you want a loan to study at UCLA in basket weaving, UCLA should loan you the money.
If it turns out it's a worthless degree, then UCLA would suffer since you are unlikely to pay it back. If the quality of education isn't up to snuff, then UCLA would suffer since you are unlikely to pay it back.
If it is a worthwhile degree with good quality, and you decide to not pay it back, then UCLA denies you ever went there, they revoke the official degree.
Joe J at April 23, 2015 1:34 PM
When Deadbeat Dads Can't Catch a Break
By Megan McArdle
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-22/when-deadbeat-dads-can-t-catch-a-break
Snoopy at April 23, 2015 2:50 PM
Leave a comment