Student Debt Crisis Announces New Video Contest -Asks Student Loan Borrowers To Share Their Debt Sories
(New York, NY) Student Debt Crisis (formerly, ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com), is launching a video contest for the 36 million Americans affected by crushing student loan debt. Beginning August 1, interested applicants will submit videos about their personal student debt experiences and answer one of the following questions: “Did you Major in Debt?” or “Why Congress should #ListenToTheMillion?”
** “Listen to the Million” is a reference to the million plus supporters who have signed the petition in favor of H.R.4170: The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012.
The submission portion of the contest will run for one month, ending on August 31, 2012. On September 1st, Student Debt Crisis will feature all submissions at StudentDebtCrisis.com, allowing the public to view all of the videos and vote for their favorites. Winners will be announced on September 17, 2012.
By providing this interactive platform for student debtors to share their personal testimonials, the Student Debt Crisis team aims to provide a voice for the millions affected. Those interested in participating are encouraged to take action at StudentDebtCrisis.com.
Background – ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com is re-branding as Student Debt Crisis to reflect the fact that the reforms being sought are not limited to forgiveness alone, but a whole host of other steps that would chip away at the status quo with regard to student debt. Robert Applebaum, the founder of ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com, has joined forces with Rae Ann Roca of Loan Reform Now, Natalia Abrams and Kyle McCarthy; fellows at the Backbone Campaign, in forming Student Debt Crisis, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.
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I graduated in 1991 from Phillips Junior College with student loans just under $10K. Doable, right? Unfortunately Phillips credits did NOT transfer to other colleges (the admissions reps lied). By that time, local employers had learned that the admissions reps had falsified so much information, the degrees were probably worthless. I was never able to use either of my A.S. degrees (With Honors, no less), and never able to earn enough money to support myself AND pay back the loans. The debt has been re-sold several times and has now morphed into about $45K. You can’t include student loans in a banruptcy. Phillips was disbanded YEARS ago, the government KNOWS the school’s accreditation was worthless, and yet…I could buy a decent handyman’s special with what I owe in student loans.
I took out student loans when I decided to go to college after being out of shool for awhile. I was married, had two young children and started back to school. I did a lot without help from my husband at the time. He was working the night shift and wasn’t much help. I had to rely on my mom for help with the children. I took out a few different loans. I not only used them for school expenses but sure helping with the home expenses. Then when we got a divorce, I was given these loans. I didn’t think it was fair since he also benefited from the money. He didn’t tell people that we had used the money for other things. Since I ask a single mother, it is hard for me to pay the daily bills not to mention paying in a student loan. Plus to tho it all off, since I didn’t power the state boards, I am unable to use my degree. If I didn’t have this burden hanging over me, I could go back to school to get a better paying job. Then I would be able to better support could and my child. I pray that I will receive help for this situation.
I am a teacher at a charter school, and I am $90,000 in student loan debt. With PA slashing public school budgets and thousands of teachers being laid off, I took the only teaching job I could find to help support my family. Unfortunately, I’ve reached my salary cap 5 years after my employment. Right now, my monthly student loan payments equal over 25% of my monthly take home pay. I feel inadequate as a provider…so inadequate that my husband and I are not having more than 1 child because we don’t know if we can support 2 children in this economy and help 2 children pay for college. Our 529 college fund we set up for our son projects that it will cost 250,000 for 4 years for him to attend a state school in the year 2028. Wow…wow…
I would like to share my frustration with trying to get rid of my student loan debt. I have looked into the public employee loan forgiveness program as I am a school psychologist and have worked in public school since 2001 and have been faithfully paying them since 2002. I thought I would qualify for the program, however, found out that when I consolidated my loans they are now titled FFLEP loans which are not eligible. I have almost met the criteria of having 120 consequtive payments and have worked in a quite a few Title I schools since 2007, yet I don’t qualify unless I reconsolidate to a Direct Loan and then another 120 payments! So I looked into reconsolidating to Direct Loans and found out that they will not give me the incentive interest rate I was receiving from Sallie Mae and not be paying the original payment they quoted me! I wonder if this public employee loan forgiveness program will even be available after paying another 10 years, and if not then I will stuck with an additional $7000 of interest. The interesting part is that I had Direct Loans originally and consolidated them to get a lower interest rate. Sounds absurd to me that they cannot count my payments on my FFLEP loans!!! I am thinking I will not reconsolidate to Direct Loans or try and apply for the loan forgiveness program as I can get a lower interest rate and lower my payment with Sallie Mae by switching to a graduated loan and then I could afford to make a higher payment to pay it off sooner! The worse part is that I know the rules and regulations of the public employee loan forgiveness program is the way it is so they only want to spend a certain amount of dollars or get out of really helping people get out of student debt…by the way, my current payment is $273 a month at 2.5% interest and if I went with Direct Loans it would be $215 at 3.75% interest. Doesn’t sound like a good deal to me?
I graduated in 1982 with about $20,000 in debt. I got a job in public education and wasn’t making much but was able to keep current on my student loan payments for many years. My salary however, didn’t keep pace with inflation and in the early 90s, after a very costly divorce, I was so far under water, I had to file a Chap. 7 bankrupcy. My lawyer assured me the student loan was erased with the Chap. 7. I learned about 8 years later however, that my lawyer hadn’t filed the proper paperwork and I not only still owed on the student loan, but interest and fees had been piling up. I made an agreement to start paying enough to cover the interest on the loan every month ($156). I’ve been paying this monthly fee every month since then and still owe the U.S. Dept of Education about $55,000. By my calculations, I’ve paid back the original $20,000 I borrowed about 3 times over, yet still owe them $55,000!
I find myself confused about what the DOJ does? I sent numerous letters showing the USDE sending a letter to CTI- a collection agency for student loans – that had five communiations in the letter to CTI and authored by a Diane Spadoni with all five stating the USDE has no record that I had ever received any defements on my student loans; yet the Diane Spadoni sent Congressman Todd Platts a letter confirming the USDE having knowldge of my having defermentsn my student loans ( with the fact he USDE has other leters stating I had deferments on my student loans, the USDE committed a Federal crime? But the DOJ won’t even ask me any questions?
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Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:06:54 +0000
From: newsmax@reply.newsmax.com
To: russelheim62@hotmail.com
Subject: Obama, Pentagon Threaten Legal Action Against SEAL Author
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PS…our cost of living allowance has been frozen by the state of WA for the past 4 years and has continued. I will be at the top of the payscale in another 4 and will be losing money due to the rise in insurance premiums.