Hindsight Is The Best

Lacking an accurate crystal ball, one can only bet on what seems likely at the time.

Had I known that I'd have to become a stay at home dad regardless of if I graduated I'd have skipped college altogether.

In the heady days of 2000 it seemed like a good plan.

The economy around here was doing decently, I had a decent job doing mechanical design; Harvey's career prospects were looking up as her degree had landed an entry level job as a financial aid representative for a small for-profit college.

I took classes at night and early Saturday mornings on a part-time basis at the same college that employed Harvey.  Tuition discounts made it so we didn't have to borrow at this point.

Then some religious nut-bag plowed a plane into the World Trade Center.

The company I worked for went under.

The Boy hit some glandular change and became impossible to place at all of the local care centers which we could afford.

So, thinking this was temporary, we borrowed to get Harvey the MBA they said she needed for promotion and I kept at the night classes full-time.

Things still looked positive at this point that the thing with The Boy was a phase and would be over by the time I graduated and got a job.

Wrong.

Had I known then what I know now I would not have fallen for the sunk-cost fallacy and completed my degree.

My school had been sold, twice.  Going from an independent college to part of Everest Colleges to being part of Corinthian Colleges.  With each sale, the reputation of the school suffered.

I discovered that I could not transfer out to a different university because of the Byzantine number of rules about accreditation, the same rules that kept me from transferring credits from Iowa State to my school.  Rules that the Department of Education issues and maintains via accrediting bodies which are as independent of the government as The Fed...

Every sale changed the policies about discounts, scholarships, tuition and loans.

Tuition increased every semester.  My last credit cost a lot more than my first.  So we had to borrow more to stay in school and not lose the progress already made.

Every sale affected the accreditation and what classes I needed.  Redundant math and English classes were paid for and taken.

Then I graduated in '05.  B average.

Even if the economy was robust, I was still stuck at home with The Boy. 

Harvey, on the other hand, appeared to be advancing well.  She'd gotten the MBA and was the head of the financial aid department and was Everest's go-to-girl to fly in and fix ailing departments and get them up to code.

Corinthians didn't want someone like her.

So they cut her.

And my mom died.

Just in time because what she left me paid the bills while Harvey looked for another job.

We still had hope!  We hadn't lost that much time.

But Harvey had to start over with a new company.  Twice.

Congress and the Department of Education keep changing the rules to favor the taxpayer supported state universities at the expense of cheaper privately owned colleges and academies.  (Where's the bitching about your tax money going to support those?)

It's affected her career.

But it's important to note that we're not standing here with our hands out demanding that the government come save us.  Though it would be nice if the genuine crimes committed by the owners of Corinthians had resulted in the acknowledgement that none of those degrees were worth the paper they were printed on and told those owners that THEY owed the loans they predatorily issued to unsuspecting students.

Technically I could have my debt wiped.  If can, somehow, come up with the lump sum to pay the IRS.  If your school is closed by the DoE for cause, you too can have your loans cancelled.  For a gigantic tax bill.

The IRS doesn't do the, "but I don't have it game."  They decide you owe, you pay, or get your shit seized and you go to jail if that's not enough.

That make us 50-something olds with nothing and a disabled kid on our hands with no place to live.  Yeah, sign me up for that!

So we sit with a not insubstantial amount garnished from every check until the end of time.  We want to pay these off, but the repayment terms are asinine once you get so far underwater.  We're never getting out.