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Joshua Alferos was when he ran out of money from his second semester with his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He was about to change majors.
He then heard of new experimental programs run by charities and private companies. The debt was not due until he got the minimum salary, and his employer would probably help him pay it back.
One of the best parts for Alferos: repayments go into the pool and offer the same help to other young, low-income Hawaiians who follow him.
“It’s quite empowering because it can help future students,” said Alferos, who continues to research loan programs.
This payment approach to cover university costs multiplies by the number of students who can benefit from a fixed supply of financial aid and can fill the shortage of workers in key industries.
California will soon join in the effort.
The San Diego County-run program will begin in the fall. Also, the bill introduced in the California Legislature to establish a Pay-It Forward Fund for some students at the University of California and the University of California State Systems did not advance this session, but will be heard again in January.
The San Diego program targets behavioral health majors, including clinicians, practitioners and psychiatric nurses. These loans are entirely permissible for graduates who have been engaged in behavioral health for more than five years.
“All you need to see is where there is a permanent demand for a particular qualification or degree,” said Kirstin Hill, president and chief operating officer of Social Finance, a nonprofit that helps you manage and manage payment funds across the country.
As millions of people default on student loans and face aggressive new federal enforcement measures to collect payments, their supporters say.
Alex Harris, vice president of programs at the Harold KL Castle Foundation, is portrayed outside the foundation’s office in Kailua, Hawaii on April 9th.
(Mengshin Lin/Hechinger Report)
“This is a new way of thinking about supporting scholarships that can extend your dollars,” said Alex Harris, vice president of the Harold KL Castle Foundation, the lead donor of Hawaii’s Renewable Learning Fund. That’s because once it’s repaid, you can lend it back.
This feature resonates with Hawaii. Hawaii has a tradition of mutual support known as “Kokua.”
“We have a long cultural history where when one person is successful, everyone can be raised,” Harris said.
Under the pilot, Hawaiian engineering students from low-income families can borrow from the $2.5 million revolving funds undertaken by the Castle Foundation and other donors.
Repayments do not begin until the student graduates and earns more than $50,000. Some of the state’s largest engineering companies have agreed to help new employees pay off their loans to encourage recruitment. The university will help promote the program.
Hawaiian pilots began with engineering majors as the state relies heavily on engineers in the major defense, construction and tourism industries, but there is a chronic shortage of them.
Students will walk through the University of Hawaii on the Manoa campus in Honolulu on April 9th.
(Mengshin Lin/Hechinger Report)
In addition to Hawaii and San Diego, the Pay It Forward program will begin or begin in the fall in Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Miami. Each focuses on areas where demand is high but supply is scarce. He is a healthcare and information technology in Colorado and New Jersey and a climate career in Massachusetts.
In 24 states with a shortage or forecasted lack of registered nurses, payable funds have been established to help residents study nursing at the National Western Governor’s College. Google does the same for students pursuing certificates in data analytics, digital marketing, e-commerce, IT support, project management and other fields.
Massachusetts and New Jersey are putting public funds behind these efforts, but working with private sources.
Massachusetts and New Jersey are working with private sources to put public funds behind these efforts.
There is a disability. At least 24 states are considering such programs, but high startup costs and other issues have prevented the launch. For example, in Illinois, the universal pay-it-forward loan fund proposal was even obtained through feasibility studies. However, researchers calculated that startups would take billions of dollars and decades.
Research shows that this is not the only issue made by the Illinois Student Assistance Committee. I speculate that giving students loans with zero interest might encourage universities and universities to raise prices. Additionally, the program has focused so far on highly paid jobs, so students may move away from important but insensitive areas such as education and social work. And sorting tax details and what happens in bankruptcy is complicated.
However, supporters have discouraged many Americans from going, claiming that paying colleges is also complicated and expensive now. The undergraduate federally subsidized student loans rate is 6.53%, with Americans holding more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt.
Another unexpected question: Students are surprisingly suspicious of the program. Many have experienced misleading promises of financial aid from universities and universities, changing federal lending rules, and slow, unresponsive loan servicers.
Brennon Morioka, dean of the University of Hawaii’s Faculty of Engineering, did not respond to the first email he announced the fund. They said their program was small. Since it began in the fall, 17 engineering majors have signed up, according to Castle Foundation’s Harris.
“I thought it was better the more it wasn’t true, but I took the chance,” said Melanie Habon, whose parents, immigrants from the Philippines, encouraged her to become a structural engineer.
Habon said she worked on a new graduate housing project she went to campus, a project she took on as an intern in one of the companies that was part of the program.
“I like the direct line from being a student to working in your industry,” she said. “And I like to know where my money goes.”
This article was written by Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focusing on education inequality and innovation.
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