Nobody made students take out loans. What happened to personal responsibility? | Opinion
No forgiveness
Recent articles related to the Supreme Court’s decision on student loan forgiveness, such as “Student borrowers devastated by high court ruling” in Sunday’s paper, (3A) are very one-sided.
Those students chose to incur that debt. Nobody forced them to go into debt to go to college. What happened to accountability and personal responsibility?
What about the other side? What about the parents who chose to forgo vacations to remain debt-free as they sent their kids to college? Or what about people who chose to work rather than go to college? They would be penalized for their conscientious decisions if debt forgiveness prevails.
Finally, what about people like me who paid off our loans in full and on time? Where’s our break? How is debt forgiveness fair to responsible people like us? Where are our thousands of dollars?
I’d like to see more balance on this topic, please.
- Kathryn Lawler, Overland Park
Overinflated
Taylor Holmes wrote a serious guest commentary about controlling the cost of tuition for higher education in the Sunday Star. (17A, “Students need help to control tuition for an education”) She posed questions I never see answered.
When we were at Kansas State University in 1953, tuition was $110 a semester. It is now more than $11,000 a year for in-state students, not including mandatory fees, room and board. For non-residents, it’s almost $26,000.
This is not inflation. This is taking advantage.
Worse, in 1953, all our instructors were college teachers with salaries and benefits. Now, many undergraduate classes are taught by graduate students who receive stipends of as little as $13,000 a year with no benefits.
Could we see the income and expense figures for our state colleges? They should be public information, but I’ve been unable to find them.
- Elizabeth Cook, Shawnee
Religion imposed
After the 1787 Philadelphia Constitution Convention, James Madison drafted a Bill of Rights. Its First Amendment reads:
”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The Warren Court of the 1950s upheld this Establishment Clause in Bible reading and prayer in public schools and other public venues. The present Supreme Court has negated the “free exercise” provision by upholding a web designer’s refusal to serve theoretical same-sex couples as a freedom of speech matter. (July 2, 8A, “In 370 days, Supreme Court dashes decades of precedents”)
That misguided ruling blurs constitutional language, and with it, the court has sided with businesses that trample on the rights of social groups in America.
- Temp Sparkman, Kansas City
Tell the truth
People opposed to abortion rights need education — especially men, but women too. No one wants to publicly discuss what went wrong with her pregnancy, so lots of women are ignorant as well.
I’d like to see true stories from doctors (perhaps published anonymously) that illustrate the reasons obstetrical care needs to be between doctors and their patients. Many things can happen to prevent a pregnancy from coming to term.
It’s mostly men who pass laws restricting abortion rights and care, and they are woefully ignorant about the issues — such as the fact that up to 1 in 5 pregnancies fail naturally.
- Doris A. Duke, Overland Park
A fair trade-off
If Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman wants me to help pay for his new downtown Kansas City ballpark, (July 2, 1B, “Sherman says ‘no one’ is waiting on Royals for new stadium”) then in exchange, I expect him to pay the huge increase in my property tax bill so I won’t have to sell my house and move out of Jackson County. (July 1, 4A, “County executive scolds KC mayor for assessment remarks”)
- Tim Bullock, Kansas City
