Fuller-Schlitz: Unconscionable. What does this mean for your students?
Snidely: Let me tell you about one student, a wonderful teacher who’s earning a master’s degree in culturally responsive playground management. This inspiring young lady entered our online program after three years in the classroom. She only makes $55,000 a year. Now, you tell me, how is she supposed to afford our $70,000-a-year, two-year playground management program?
Dr. Rick Hess: If she’s earning $55,000, does it really make sense for her to pay $140,000 for a degree? I mean, how much will she earn after she finishes?
Snidely: Ima, you see what we’re dealing with here. Look, Mr. Hess, not everything can be reduced to dollars and cents. She dreams of making playgrounds more culturally responsive. You can’t put a price tag on that.
Hess: All I’m saying is it doesn’t make sense to take loans you can’t repay. I mean, does she even need this credential?
Fuller-Schlitz: Wha—. . .? Are you . . . ? Mr. Hess, that is just such a rude question. You wouldn’t dare ask such a thing if she were pursuing a degree in something like medicine or engineering.
Hess: Well, no, because—
Snidely: Until last year, a student like this could borrow vast sums through Grad PLUS, and everyone was happy. They borrowed what they wanted, we charged what we could, and we worried about the details later. As our marketers have so aptly put it: “THEIR money. OUR credential. YOUR future.”
Hess: That’s the slogan, huh?
Snidely: Perhaps you need to spend a bit more time with your Bourdieu, Dewey, and Freire, sir, to grasp all that a degree in education can offer. But I suppose you’re too busy cheering MAGA Republicans for dashing the dreams of millions upon millions of potential marks . . . er, makers . . . difference-makers!
Hess: But will those students earn enough to repay their loans?
Fuller-Schlitz: I still don’t see why that should matter.
Snidely: Exactly right. You’re worrying about the wrong things, Mr. Hess. Here’s what you should worry about. The Big Ugly Bill creates higher caps for select “professions.” Future doctors, dentists, and lawyers can borrow $50,000. But when it comes to educators who yearn to be playground supervisors or assistant principals? Then it’s suddenly, “Sorry, no money for you.” That’s because Republicans like lawyers and doctors and hate educators. Simple as that.
Hess: Or maybe it’s because borrowers attending medical or dental school have a decent shot at repaying bigger loans. You know, the whole “professional” thing isn’t actually a value judgment; it’s an old label primarily meant to distinguish credentials that have a big pay-off from those that don’t. Educators who borrow $50,000 a year risk being buried in debt. If they can’t pay, taxpayers get stuck with the bill. The limit protects everyone from programs that have been shaking students down.
Snidely: Balderdash. Education requires rigorous preparation. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education put it best: “Limiting access to federal loans for these programs does not reduce their costs but merely shifts the burden onto students who are already weighing whether they can afford to enter the profession at all.”
Fuller-Schlitz: Authoritative wisdom, Dr. Snidely.
Snidely: Paymore U is proud to enroll many affluent students who, sure, maybe didn’t do so well in college, but now they really want a graduate degree and have the parents with big checks to prove it. Everyone should have that opportunity. Do we want to be the kind of country that bars the schoolhouse door against college graduates who seek to purchase expensive credentials? I know where my institution stands in that fight.
Fuller-Schlitz: I have little doubt your foresight will be rewarded. How will you adjust to these barbaric cuts?
Snidely: We’ll be forced to focus more intently on affluent students seeking to launder their privilege. This is a critical part of what we do. But we’ve so much more to offer. Unfortunately, there’s just no way we at Paymore can make these new loan limits work.
