Gov. Cuomo lays out plans for loan forgiveness
February 4, 2015
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent proposals on student loan and loan forgiveness are focused on the SUNY system and its students.
If Cuomo’s proposals get approved, students attending SUNY colleges and universities could have less debt and would be able to pay back their loans within the next few years.
The proposals would work in a few different ways. Students who major in education and pursuing a teaching career will likely recieve a full tuition payment, not owing a dime back to any loan agencies or banks. In addition to the federal established “Pay as You Earn” (PAYE) program, Cuomo also introduced his own intiative: “Get On Your Feet” Loan Forgiveness. The program would cover the leftover tuition costs incured for those enrolled in PAYE.
Gov. Cuomo’s idea did not fall on deaf ears.
Students, higher education advocates, and even graduate students are looking forward to seeing this plan in action. Although the plan will not be fully in motion until the Fall of 2019, Buffalo State students are happy to see such programs coming forth.
“Busting our butts to afford college gets overwhelming at times,” said senior history major Steve Szymanski.
Szymanski works full-time while also attending classes full-time and says that it can be rough to juggle at moments, but given the cost of college, it is something he understands he must do.
Recent hospitality graduate Jessica Ostrowski also agrees.
“This plan would be a huge help,” Ostrowski said. “It’s difficult finding a job, especially one that will cover the cost of regular living expenses and student loans.”
Ostrowski graduated in the fall semester of 2014 and has about $40,000 in student loans to repay.
“I’m extremely nervous about how I’m going to repay it.” Ostrowski said. She believes that such a plan would be helpful toward current students and will encourage graduation amongst students in the SUNY system.
Buffalo State could also see a large enrollment in teaching programs with this new plan in place. “I think that in particular, the teaching program will help recruit teachers to come into master programs,” said Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner.
Conway-Turner believes that it’ll be exciting for the State of New York, and in particular Buffalo State, due to having an “outstanding tradition of teach education.”
“We are ready to bring those new students onto campus and for the next generation of outstanding teachers,” Conway-Turner said. “I’m very happy to see that the governor understands the importance of teacher education and supporting students to go forth and become teachers.”
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Daniel Flynn • Feb 4, 2015 at 12:25 pm
I find the Governor’s plan to forgive the loan debt for those wishing to become teachers laughable and insulting. For years now, so-called “education reformers” have been lobbying the NYS Assembly and the Governor himself. The goal of these reformers is to fundamentally change the way our public schools operate because our education system is allegedly “broken.” In place of a democratically-run public school system with school boards and PTA organizations, the reform movement would have public schools operate like corporations. They believe a more dictatorial approach is needed to solve the problem. The trouble with democracy, they often say, is that it is messy and inefficient. These lobbyists appear to succeeded in convincing the Governor that our system is broken, despite the fact that teachers in this state, when compared to other states, are well-trained and highly accredited. Yet, the Governor feels that our teachers are ineffective, and should be able to be fired for lack of performance. How does he plan to evaluate the performance of teachers? The Governor is planning to prevent teachers from obtaining tenure until they have demonstrated excellent performance for a period of five consecutive years, which is up from the current measure of three years. Fifty percent of a teacher’s evaluation, under the Governor’s proposed plan, would be measured by the performance of students on the standardized exams, which is up from twenty percent. His reforms don’t end there either. He will also increase the number of charter schools in this state by nearly 1,000. Charter schools, despite their overrated reputation, do not typically perform better on the standardized exams, yet the reformers, with their pseudo-scientific power point presentations, have convinced the Governor otherwise. Cuomo would also increase spending on updating urban schools with more technology. In the city of Buffalo, the taxpayer spends around 16,000 a year per student, which is the highest in the state. Yet, Buffalo city students have the worst performance in the state on the exams. The correlation between performance and spending does not hold water. To make matters worse, the Governor is preparing for a conflict with teachers unions, which he views as being obstacles to progress. Any college student in this state who wishes to go into education should know that the loan forgiveness program is dependent on your ability to get a job in education and keep it for a certain period of time. If you lose your job, most often due to being denied tenure, you loan will not be forgiven, and because Cuomo intends to make it far more difficult for teachers to earn tenure, his loan forgiveness program is a joke.
Daniel Flynn • Feb 4, 2015 at 12:35 pm
Furthermore, it is also worth noting that even if his loan forgiveness program only requires that the applicant work as a teacher for a period of five years (his proposed amount of time it will take to earn tenure), it will come with some rather hard terms for those who fail to earn tenure. If the applicant completes the requisite five years of labor, but fails to earn tenure, then all that the applicant has achieved is erasing his debt. It is VERY difficult to find employment as a teacher once your employment record shows that you were denied tenure. So if the applicant fails to obtain tenure, then they will have to go back to school to retrain in another career.