
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 14, 1993                   TAG: 9308140147
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TODAY'S QUESTION: PAYING OFF COLLEGE LOANS

My question is in regard to the guaranteed student loan program now known as the Stafford Loan. There are some of us that have over $20,000 in loans and would like to know what the government here in the state of Virginia, not just on the federal level, plans to do to allow some of us to do some type of community service in regard to paying those off. I will be graduating from Virginia Tech next year, and I see no reason that the state of Virginia can't have something for its residents to participate in that could remove some of the loan debt.

Deborah Parks, Collinsville.

Mary Sue Terry:

"When I graduated from college, I had student loans. When I graduated from law school, I had student loans. I was well into my tenure as attorney general and still paying off loans. I don't know what the amount would be today. . . . At the time, it didn't feel inconsequential but obviously tuition today constitutes a higher percentage of average per-capita income than it did back in the '60s.

"I'm not prepared today to commit to a new program, given the budget constraints we have as it relates to student loans. I do think we need to address this issue by working in the future to hold the line on tuition increases for in-state, undergraduate students.

"I think when it comes to out-of-state students, we ought to keep the market levels so we don't lose our competitiveness with other elite institutions we tend to attract students from. I think we ought to consider adjusting upward our tuition if we need to, only if we need to, for the high demand professional programs, graduate programs, such as law schools, for instance. But the first thing I can do to help students is to hold the line on in-state, undergraduate tuition increases."

George Allen:

"We have something called Pell grants. Pell grants are for lower-middle-income families and as a member of Congress I tried to reallocate $160 million of those, that's nationwide, away from prisoners. As I said from the House floor, that money ought to be going to hard-working families who would kill to get into college instead of give it to those who already have.

"The loans might not be as aggravating if we put a lid on college tuition costs. I want our colleges to make contracts with the parents that the cost of tuition will not increase any more than the rate of inflation over a four-year period. That would help, obviously, as far as the cost of college tuition.

"Thirdly, I'd like to see greater utilization of our college facilities, whether that's professors teaching, say, another course, also greater opportunities for courses for summer school, so students who can't get through in four years get the courses they'd like to take.

"The only loan [work-off] program I can see the state doing are those where we want to target students into areas of priority, let's say for teachers, that you'll be a teacher. Or medical school, where the loans are just horrendous. The average loan of a student just graduating from medical school, on average, is $50,000.

"We want to get those medical school students to practice as family physicians or general practitioners in rural, underserved areas. Well, you should make a loan to them that is repaid by setting up practice in a rural, underserved area. . . . But to simply say, we're going to forgive 'em for community service, I wouldn't do it that way. I think you'd have to look at some public policy you'd want to encourage."

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB