To the Editor:
Has anyone read [U.S. Representative] Mary Gay Scanlon’s newsletter this week? She is backing reforms for student financing of higher education costs. She starts out with a sob story to make us feel bad for people who make bad financial decisions. Personal responsibility is not required here. While the proposal is not all bad, it includes provisions for tax incentives for employers to fund students (another way to encourage students into believing it is okay to go into debt,) loan forgiveness, and discharge for bankruptcy. This is another example of progressive policy leading to the destruction of our freedom and liberty.
The progressives’ goal is for the elites, corporations, and globalists to control our lives. Progressives want to place the cost on all of us, while not all of us require a college education. Just like when government caused the housing bubble by determining everyone ought to own a home, the government determined all of us need a college education, so they created a new bubble with low interest loans while allowing the colleges to jack up the costs, making college unaffordable and all of us bound to their progressive agenda.
I worked to pay for my college education in the 80’s, when it was still affordable. Because of progressive policies, it is now unrealistic for a young adult to earn enough to pay for college. I now must pay an inflated cost for my children’s education. That being said, I did make my kids take out a reasonable amount of college loans, so they have personal responsibility for their choices. While there are still ways to attain a college education without a huge expense, I believe the cost of most colleges is unrealistically high for most people.
Remember, no government is benevolent, and humans act first in their own self-interest. We must each take personal responsibility to preserve our God-given freedom and liberty, defend the Constitution, which should guide our legislation, which in my opinion, Mary Gay fails to do. The answer is less government intervention, not free college.
Jim Riviello
Swarthmore
