Bad debt

Imagine if student loans were treated like an investment, whereby the companies handing out the money could evaluate the likelihood of the person succeeding and being able to pay off the debt.  That's right, the individual would be rated just like a small business looking for investment capital. 

As Occupy Wall Street campers faced off with authorities around the nation, students on several California university campuses rallied in solidarity with the movement and to protest education cuts and rising tuition.

Jennifer Johnson, a graduate student in education, was out on Sproul Plaza at 8 a.m. along with about a third of her Spanish I class. Instructor Daniel Rodriguez was teaching on the plaza's chilly steps to support the protest without interrupting his students' education. Rodriguez led a bilingual teachable moment with a new vocabulary: Huelga, protestar, manifestacion — "Strike," "to protest," "demonstration."

"We have finals coming up and a lot of stuff to learn," said Johnson, 36. "We want to have our education — in a visible way, to demonstrate our commitment to education and that we also need to fight."

Classmate Nuha Masri said she has taken on $3,000 in loans this year to cover her college costs and $3,000 more for dental work. "We can't focus on our classes when we're wondering how we're going to find more money," said Masri, 22, a sociology major from Upland.

At Cal State Fullerton, student Karley White held a sign that read "We are living proof that the system is broken." White, a women's studies major, said that budget cuts make it hard to get the classes she needs to graduate and that she fears another tuition hike will sink her further in debt. "The minute I get out, I have to start paying back loans with a job I can't get," said White, 21. "I'm being pushed further and further into a hole."

Education, sociology, and women's studies . . . would you be willing to finance any of these ladies? 

Karley, hun, you are living proof that you are naive enough to have been sold a bad bill of goods.  I am sure some admissions counselor gave you the song and dance and oh!  You're all growed up and ready to forge new theories in women's studies . . . or regurgitate old, tired ones from textbooks that your professors have assigned because they wrote them.  If you know that no job awaits you in women's studies, then perhaps you should change course.  Drop out for awhile.  Work.  Volunteer.  Learn a little more about life than getting caught up in a cycle where you incur more debt for a bad investment.