You’d think we’d learn. I think we need better leadership.

Do you remember 2008 and the most recent Housing Bubble? For years, real estate prices had been climbing and climbing — such a staggering upward trajectory, everyone wanted their own piece— and mortgage lenders were happy to dole out cash to anyone with a pulse. When the bubble finally burst, values fell, mortgages went unpaid and too many homes were simply abandoned.

Our economy was crippled, with real people being negatively affected. It was and remains an American tragedy — at least, a tragedy for those who were preyed upon simply for realizing the American Dream of home ownership. For all the “too-big-to-fail” banks who got $700 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout money, rewarding them for over-investing other people’s money in mortgage-backed securities…well, their CEOs have been doing extremely, supremely well ever since. Living like kings. As if nothing bad happened.

It seems we’re heading directly into the same sort of catastrophic storm right now, looming in the Student Debt Crisis.

Look at it: Student loan debt soared from $260 billion in 2004 to $1.4 trillion in 2017, according to Debt.org; and the average debt owed to student loan corporations jumped from $18,650 to $38,000 over that same period. About 63% of Millennials in 2017 owed more than $10,000 in student loan debt.

It’s not like these ex-students, now diligently applying their education as productive taxpayers in the American workforce, aren’t making payments. You just can’t call them “repayments.” (Link to some of these tweets from a December 2019 article, “This Viral Twitter Thread About the Impossibility of Paying Back Student Loans Is Terrifying” The Mary Sue, by Kaila Hale-Stern)

“When I left grad school in 2008, I owed $70k in federal student loans. (A poor choice I wouldn’t make again.) For the past 11 years, I’ve been making payments (except for a period of under employment), totaling about $60,000 in payments. Guess how much I still owe? $70,000.”

“Graduated grad school in ’08 with nearly $100k in debt, have paid over $100k since then in interest, still owe $100k.”

“Started out owing $120k. 7 years, never missed a payment, got it all the way down to $137k!”

“I graduated in 1998. I used deferrals and forbearance for years because I was too poor to pay. I originally borrowed $48,000 and have paid approximately $27,000 over the years since Income Based Payments became an option. I now owe $192,000.”

There are many lenders at fault, but over $300 billion in student loans, both government and private, are “serviced” — so to speak — by Navient. That’s 25% of all student-loan debt in this country. You probably know Navient better by the name Sallie Mae.

Navient is currently being sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for misapplying payments, charging unfair late fees, purposely providing false information and forcing borrowers into forbearance, thereby racking up more interest payments. (“How to deal with Navient Student loan servicing problems and lawsuits,” The College Investor, by Robert Farrington ).

Learning that your government preys on your wish to improve yourself by turning you into an indentured vessel in permanent debt to corporate masters? Now that’s getting a real education.

And what’s scary is that the result of the oncoming Student Debt Crisis could result in the same as in the Housing Bubble: A government response that serves ONLY corporate interests and is entirely indifferent to the people whose financial lives remain shredded in shambles.

We’ve seen this episode before, and we know how it ends…unless we change the plot and put better, more moral, more compassionate leadership at the top. One candidate in particular stands out because of how she consistently stands up for “We the People” whenever a few get rich while the people get scammed.

That leader is Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hi.).

Listen to the preponderance of Gabbard’s discussions on the topic of education.

When she talks about her priorities as President, she mentions education EVERY TIME. She’s said that “in order to invest in our future, we have to provide adequate resources and meaningful accountability to ensure that all our students have equal access to quality education.” She’s as focused on providing early childhood education to all youngsters, as she is on making college more affordable to older kids and adults — all using cooperative, middle-of-the-road solutions.

In Congress, Gabbard has co-sponsored a pair of bills that would do just that: HR 1674, the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2015 (to allow student loan debt to be dischargeable in bankruptcy); and HR 1880, the College For All Act of 2017 (to make colleges tuition-free for working-class students, and two-year colleges free to all students).

She’s standing up for America’s students.

The price tag of a college education has gone up precipitously over the past 40 years. According to Debt.org, public tuition jumped from $2,119 to $9,410 between 1980 and 2017, while private tuition rose from $9,500 to $32,410. Meanwhile, it remains impossible to get out of student loan debt, even in cases of hardship and bankruptcy.

Gabbard stands out as a reasonable contrast when compared with other presidential candidates like Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), whose debt-cancellation plan is short-sighted and doles out benefits unequally.

From Tulsi’s legislative actions and her campaign messages: Education is the greatest possible investment because education can bring out the maximum potential of the most complex thing ever known to exist: the human mind.

It follows from this axiom that education is something that should never be held up for ransom. Loans to students in search of education should NEVER be driven by corporate profit.

Once upon a time, the United States was a world leader in expanding education. The very idea of free universal public education, from kindergarten through high school, began in America and spread around the world.

Today the U.S. has a chance to lead the world in education again. Without a doubt, the American university system is one of our nation’s jewels and an irreplaceable engine of economic growth. We should never discourage young people from taking full advantage of the tremendous educational opportunities this country offers, and work for their own chance at success.

To hold someone down with debt is inherently unAmerican. We need a leader like Gabbard who can bring back the American value of affordable education.

Torund Bryhn, Writer @StandwithTulsi