Monday, December 7, 2015

Literature Review 5

Literature Review 5

Author

Kevin Carey

Citation

Carey, Kevin. "Student Debt in America: Lend With a Smile, Collect With a Fist." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 28 Nov. 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Summary

This is an article published in the NY times about Liz Kelley and how she was able to accumulate $410 thousand in debt.  It brings up how she took out loan after loan in and out of school.  The lender was the federal government, and has different rules then private lenders.  The article states  how Ms. Kelley was able to repeatedly take out loans while deferring her payments, not making a single payment in 25 years.  The government allowed Ms Kelley to have her debts pile up, and now with interest is states that it will take her a long time to pay back her loans, past retirement if she sticks with the same job and how she cannot declare bankruptcy- she is stuck with the loans.

Quotes

"Of the 43.3 million borrowers with outstanding federal student loans, 1.8 percent, or 779,000 people, owe $150,000 or more. And 346,000 owe more than $200,000."

"A private sector lender approached by a potential borrower with no assets, a modest income and $350,000 in debt who had never made a payment on that loan in over 20 years would not, presumably, lend that person an additional $7,800. But that’s exactly what the Department of Education did for Ms. Kelley in 2011. Legally, it could do nothing else."

Relation

The article highlights a lot of what is wrong with how loans are being handled.  This is not a unique case, students take out loans to afford going to college.  But with the government pushing people to go to college and allowing them to take out loans with reckless abandon results in loans that are often unpayable.  The government allows people to take out loans, and while the alternative may be harmful to the individual, there are other options.  But instead of taking those options, the people are conditioned in to just taking out loans and then become stuck with them for the rest of their lives.  Since my paper is about student loans and debt, this was pretty much directly related.

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Research Blog 8

Interview

Do you commute?

Yes

Are you taking out loans, are they large, what about scholarships

Yes and no, they weren't too big. (the loans)

Do you have a job?  Where does the money go?

Yes, work only weekends 15 hours total.  Salary goes to the bank, tips I use as spending money.

How much time do you have to yourself?

Commute takes time, but like enough time.  Like 5 or 6 or whatever.

Do you feel stressed out whenever you think about balancing work and study?

I have some support from parents so I'm not too too concerned.
What is your major, do you think you'll be able to make your loan payments on time?

Changed major to marketing, assuming if I did what I'd do now then I'd be able to pay it.  I commute and CUNY is like really cheap, so it's really not too expensive.  Express bus is expensive as shit though fare is $6.50
Plans post graduation?

Get a job.  Game plan is probably through internship with help from the school

Did you feel like you needed to attend college?

Well yeah, you kind of need to go to college since everyone does it.  If you don't nobody will take you seriously.

Interviewee 2

What do you look for when hiring?

We either look for experienced workers who have proved their worth and ability to work diligently, or we look at our interns... Students who have an internship are given a chance and if we like them, then we would be more than happy to offer the intern a job.  Uh anyone can be offered a job, if we like them then we can secure them a job before they graduate.  Work ethic is really important, and while we're biased towards some schools, we are willing to hire from any school if the person attracts our interest.

Are the interns paid?

No, the interns are usually not paid.


Interviewee 3

How much money are you making?  

$21.75  (Canadian)

Is that a lot or a little money?

it's pretty __ expensive up here so not that much

Obviously you're not in college right.  Do you feel like it's important?

Yeah of course I'm not, I'm not going to deal with that __.  There are tons of jobs here that don't need college, world will always needs craftsmen you know?

Do you live alone or do you have your own place?

Dude I live with my family, why'd I rent my own place?  (I ask about dorming)  Honestly it's a waste of money just live at home, no rent and you don't have to pay OR make your own food!  But hey each to his own you know.

The first person I interviewed is a fellow college student, to get another person's thoughts on their loans and why they attend college.  In his eyes most students would attend college if they want to be competitive.   The second person I interviewed is my Dad, who takes part in hiring employees for a major company.  Where better to ask about college grads and internships than someone directly involved?  Answer seems to be an outlier, since many companies make it very difficult to have a secure job, especially before graduating.   The third person is a high school grad in Canada who decided not to go to college.  The culture there seems different, and makes sense.  Not everyone needs to attend college to get something done in life, and also ignore lots of the stigma tied to people who don't go to college.

Research Blog 6

Visual

A graph is a simple way to show how much people are actually burdened by student debt.  The image is taken from the NSNA, which collects info regarding all nursing students in the united states.  The article states that the trends in the nursing profession mirror the trends for all students, so this is can be used as a good estimate for those who graduate with or without debt.  So in the past 4 years over 70% of nursing students have graduated with debt.  The numbers cannot be bent in any way, they are incredibly simple and very straightforward.
 Here's another image, instead of a graph it's a satirical comic, which is pretty accurate.  It doesn't even bring up the potential job or the money that they may or may not earn.  People expect so much more for a lot less.  In turn with people working more hours for less money, companies expect more from their interviewees.  Lots of companies require people to take an unpaid or barely min wage internship in which the person is expected to work as if it was their job, adding even more stress to students who have to juggle work, internships and study.

Literature Review 4

Author
Stanley Aronowitz

Citation
Aronowitz, Stanley. "The Death And Life Of American Labor." Social Policy 44.4 (2014): 49-53.Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.

Summary
This reading discusses the lower end employee, protests, the strengths of unions and government.  The potential growth or decline in the American labor market is according to the reading heavily influenced by the policies that the government implement, and how the unions and workers react to them.  It points to many specific stats/cases such as gender inequality in the workplace, and the inability for many people to be unable to properly sustain themselves even though they work.  He focuses on what government policies do that affect these topics, such as the government cutting retirement benefits, and what the people currently working need to do to protect themselves in case unions cannot.

Quotes
"In 2013 half of U.S. households reported having trouble making ends meet, and that is an egregious scandal in the richest country in the world." (51)

"Courts brazenly support employer demands for antistrike injunctions, while employers freely intimidate workers in the job, especially those seeking union recognition; routinely violate the laws enacted to protect worker's wages and hours; and engage in outright wage theft- all because they know that the federal and state governments are lax in enforcement" (51)

"Yet in the past twenty years schooling has become a labor issue: credentials are the first qualification for the new high-tech workplaces and for entrance into the burgeoning army of administrative workers.  Yes, more working class students today do enter some institution of higher education.  But the dropout rate is appalling, because most of these students are forced to work full-time to pay tuition ad support themselves or contribute to the family income." (53) 

Relation
The piece has several points that are directly related to my topic.  One huge reason why student debt is so large is because the people cannot get a good sustainable job post graduation.  The piece discusses how the government is not making it easy to pay off debts, and that simply having a job isn't enough due to the negative influences caused by the employers and government.  It points to the issues of the unions and how they can't or don't do what's required for employee safety, and ties education to the wage crisis, housing etc.

Monday, November 23, 2015

Literature Review 3

Literature Review 3
Citation
Rank, Mark R., Yoon Hong-Sik, and Thomas A. Hirschl. "American Poverty As A Structural Failing: Evidence And Arguments." Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare 30.4 (2003): 3-29. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
Summary
The reading discusses how poverty is the result of structural failure, or how the government has intentionally or unintentionally set the poor up to fail.  It brings up educational programs set up by the government with the intent to aid people, the struggling market of labor to supply jobs for workers and the difference between wages and increasing living expenses.  It also brings up the contrast, that it's the person's fault that they are poor.
Authors
Mark R. Rank of Washington University, George Warren Brown School of Social Work
Hong-Sik Yoon of Chonbuk National University (Korea), Department of Social Welfare
Thomas A. Hirschl of Cornell University, Department of Rural Sociology
Quotes
"15.3 percent are at jobs in which their earnings will not get their families above 1.25 of the poverty line, and 22.0 percent are eomployed at jobs that will not get their families above 1.50 of the poverty line.  We can clearly see that the jobs one parent family heads are working at are much less able to sustain these households above the level of poverty than that for all families." (Rank, Yoon and Hirschl 12)
"On one hand, poverty has been viewed as the result of individual failings.  From this perspective, specific attributes of the impoverished individual have brought about their poverty." (Rank, Yoon and Hirschl 4)
"On the other hand, poverty has periodically been interpreted as the result of the failings at a structural level, such as the inability of the economy to produce enough decent paying jobs." (Rank, Yoon and Hirschl 4)
Relation to Topic

The idea that it's the fault of the structure (government/corporations) failings that result in poverty is being applied to my paper when regarding student debt through student loans, and the increasing student loan bubble.  The three people use pieces of evidence that mirror the events that are happening today in regards of student debt, and the concepts tie in to both topics.  In the same way that people are poor due to inadequate jobs is the same reason that people cannot earn enough to pay their debts.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Five Sources

Bibliography

Lawson, Aaron. "Educational Federalism: A New Case For Reduced Federal Involvement In K-  12 Education." Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal 2 (2013): 281-   318.Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.


RILEY, JASON L. "When Good Intentions Aren't Good Enough."Intercollegiate Review (2015): 16-19. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Green III, Preston C., Bruce D. Baker, and Joseph O. Oluwole. "Having It Both Ways: How Charter Schools Try To Obtain Funding Of Public Schools And The Autonomy Of Private Schools." Emory Law Journal 63.2 (2013): 303-337.Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Peer, Justin W., Stephen B. Hillman, and Emma Van Hoet. "The Effects Of Stress On The Lives Of Emerging Adult College Students: An Exploratory Analysis." Adultspan Journal 14.2 (2015): 90-99. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Jackson, Chandra L., et al. "Asian-White Disparities In Short Sleep Duration By Industry Of Employment And Occupation In The US: A Cross-Sectional Study." BMC Public Health 14.1 (2014): 1805-1824. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Literature Review 2

Literature Review 2
Source

Educational Federalism: A New Case for Reduced Federal Involvement In K-12 Education.

Citation

Lawson, Aaron. "Educational Federalism: A New Case For Reduced Federal Involvement In K-  12 
Education." Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal 2 (2013): 281-   318.Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.

Summary

The article discusses federal intervention in public education and the effect it has on the students, particularly the poor/minorities.  It argues that the failures of certain programs/groups set by the government is harming minority students and is not giving them a proper education.  It analyzes policies and how they hamper states' ability to address problems regarding funds and education criteria.

Author

Aaron Lawson, Associate at Edelson PC, former Staff Attorney for US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Quotes
"However, the fact that federal involvement in education as produced undesirable outcomes for poor and minority students should cause policymakers to reexamine whether it is most desirable for the federal government to play such a significant role in education." (Lawson, 285)
"plaintiffs have a right not to equal state funding but to schools that provide the opportunity for a sound basic education" (Lawson, 294)
"In the context of education, where a court will establish limits on the exercise of legislative discretion but call upon the legislature to formulate a remedy in the first instance, a state court's action will be less effective since the legislature is already constrained by conditions attached to the receipt of federal funds. Indeed, where the effect of the federal policy is as harmful as some policies may be,"^116 the court's ability to vindicate the rights of students might be entirely ineffective. This possibility becomes more plausible as federal intervention grows."  (Lawson, 302)

Key Terms

Race to the Top Fund (RTTT): A government program.  States are asked to put reforms in 4 different areas which are improving low score schools, recruitment and retainment of good teachers and principals, create data systems to analyze student growth, and share it with teachers and finally adopt methods to prepare students for higher education and work.
Fourteenth Amendment:  Addresses equal rights and protection laws to all citizens, this amendment cane as a result of the freed slaves after the civil war.  Includes Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause.
No Child Left Behind:  Government program set to aid disadvantaged students.  It set certain standards of improvement that schools must keep, lest they be penalized.

Value


The article is lengthy and discusses many government programs that may seem good at a glance.  There's lots of analysis on what the programs actually did to the schools, and how the federal government reacted, causing many negative things for the bottom end students.  The programs are in grade schools, and show that federal intervention regarding education is not always helpful, and tied with the financial backgrounds of the students negatively affected, may actually keep the students down.