Robles 1 Sandra Robles Mr.

Newman English 101: Rhetoric 25 November 2013 Give a Lot to Gain a Little Throughout most students lives they anticipate graduating from high school and moving on to college to obtain degrees for their dream careers. Those students work hard in school to be accepted into the college that will make their dream career a reality. Even then, those students that got accepted into their number one college cannot enroll because of all of the costs it takes to go there. But now there is a bill that plans to change all of that, Pay It Forward. Although Oregons Pay It Forward bill eliminates up-front payment of tuition and fees for higher education, it fails to benefit assiduous students. Over the years, the unresolved issue of how to handle the uprising cost of post-secondary education might finally be put to a standstill. Before students would have to opt for ridiculously high payments that would have to be paid off while in school or acquire an over whelming amount of debt after they graduate. Richard Prez-Pea, writer for The New York Times, reports a concept that has been approved by the Oregon Legislature to help resolve this crisis is Pay It Forward, which is a plan that could allow students to attend state colleges without paying tuition or taking out traditional loans. Instead, they would commit a small percentage of their future incomes to repaying the state. Prez-Pea also writes that the idea calls for the state to provide some money to get the program running how much would depend on how big the pilot is but that in the future, payments from former students would sustain it, then he goes on to write that the plans supporters have estimated, in the case of a student who earned a

Robles 2 bachelors degree, the state would take about 3 percent of a former students earnings for 20 years in order for it to work. As Prez-Pea puts it, Those who earn very little would pay very little, indicating that those who earn more will be the ones sustaining Pay It Forward. What is supposed to be a time of excitement and a starting point into a new chapter in a students life, after doing everything they can to succeed in life, turns into torment over the mountain of debt they will soon obtain after finishing college, and Pay It Forward would not be a sanctuary. Joe Mihalic, author of self-published book, Destroy Student Debt: A Combat Guide to Freedom, speaks on behalf of the industrious students who take only the most advanced classes and spend most of their waking hours in labs and libraries to take on a demanding career that starts them at $60,000 and puts them at over $100,000 within five years could end up paying over $60,000 during their 20-year sentence, while students who study a less in-demand field and max out at, say, a $35,000 salary will contribute less than $21,000. From this hypothetical scenario, it is clear to see the shortcomings that Pay It Forward will deliver for the students who are studying to be doctors or lawyers, versus those who are studying to be teachers or journalists. William Darity Jr. and Rhonda Sharpe, both directors of the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality at Duke University, points out that there is a mild deception at play here; the plans architects want us to believe that because the word "loan" is not used that somehow pay it forward is not a debt scheme. But a contractual obligation for repayment is nothing less than an accumulated debt. Darity Jr. and Sharpe also state, The percentage of income a graduate must pay may exceed the amount that covered their tuition and fees, particularly for those who obtain more lucrative jobs. Proponents suggest the overpayment is paying it forward. But overpayment is simply a hidden way of paying interest. And since the plan would have no predetermined amount for repayment a student could not make an informed

Robles 3 decision about which is the better option, a traditional student loan or paying it forward. Without this knowledge, diligent students could blindly choose what the authors of the plan have exploited to be the best option when in fact it will disservice them in the end. At the same time that I believe Pay It Forward does not profit laborious students, I do believe that Pay It Forward seems like a great concept because it addresses real and pressing concerns about affordability and outcomes in higher education. Prez-Pea writes that Barbara Dudley, an adjunct professor in the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University, Mary King, a professor that Dudley co-teaches Student Debt: Economics, Policy and
Advocacy, at Portland State University, and their students, came up with Pay It Forward as their group project for the semester, and they never imagined that they would actually accomplish something like this. Barbara Dudley states, The "Pay It Forward" plan is no

panacea. The Working Families Party helped move this bill through the Legislature, and while we certainly agree that both the state and federal governments contributions to higher education need to be increased, and current debt restructured if not forgiven, those are battles that will be fought out over several years. In the meantime, our students need and deserve a chance to get a college education without incurring enormous unrelenting debt. This bill is a start. Richard Vedder, the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity and teaches economics at Ohio University, gives his testimonial that Oregons proposal for students paying for their college education after graduation is intriguing. I have long advocated human capital contracts where students sell equity in themselves, giving up a share of future income in return for college financing. Oregon deserves kudos for thinking outside the box. Although Oregons Pay It Forward bill eliminates up-front payment of tuition and fees for higher education, it fails to benefit assiduous students. Another approach of Pay It Forward
would be to vary the percent and length of the payback on the investment with the student

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prospects for financial success, as measured by probability of successfully completing a degree and the earnings experience of the students major, as suggested by Vedder. Some other

alternatives that could be used to end the student debt crisis are to lower the interest rates of college education or reevaluate the necessity and costs of extras offered by colleges, as suggested
by Mihalic. With more effort and thought put into Pay It Forward, I believe it could work for all students in the near future.

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Works Cited Darity, William, Jr, and Rhonda Sharpe. "Whats Best Isnt Always Clear." Room for Deabate. The New York Times, 10 July 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Dudley, Barbara. "A Desperate Measure for Desperate Times." Room for Debate. The New York Times, 10 July 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Mihalic, Joe. "Dont Penalize Industrious Students." Room for Debate. The New York Times, 9 July 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Prez-Pea, Richard. "Oregon Looks at Way to Attend College Now and Repay State Later." Education. The New York Times, 3 July 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. Vedder, Richard. "It Could Work With Some Adjustments." Room for Debate. The New York Times, 9 July 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.