Are Vocational Colleges Getting The Shaft In The Student Loan Sector?

Federal regulatory agencies have sure gone after the vocational colleges when it comes to student loans. There have also been quite a number of lawsuits where students had later sued these colleges claiming that they were told there were plenty of jobs once they completed their degree program, but once they got out of college there were no jobs to be found. Still, although that may be the case with a very large number of students in certain industries, I don't see where that would be a specific problem only to vocational schools.

You see, there are plenty of college students that went to school to get their degree at major not-for-profit universities and colleges, and it turns out well over 50% of the kids who graduated with a law degree found no work at all. If they don't get work, they obviously can't pay their student loans, and the default rate is stacking up significantly. In fact, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal on July 18, 2012 titled; "Student Debt Hits the Middle-Aged," by Josh Mitchell, which stated;

"The delinquency rate - or the percentage of debt on which no payment has been made for 90 days - was 11.9% for debt held by borrowers aged 40 to 49 as of March, 2012. That compares with a rate of 8.7% in default for borrowers of all ages." Apparently this is data that came from the New York branch of the Federal Reserve Bank.

It seems to me that's a pretty high delinquency rate, and a pretty huge problem which is obviously coupled to our unemployment situation in the country. Therefore one has to ask if it makes sense to increase the number of student loans, so everyone can go to college, while forcing the interest rate down, while the delinquency rate is climbing so rapidly. Something has to give otherwise we are building a student loan bubble and like all bubbles regardless of industry - they do pop.

For the politic or those podium pushing politicians to try to hang all this on the vocational schools, which actually train people how to do a job, and are generally interlinked with corporations, training people for the exact jobs which are needed, well, it hardly makes sense. Perhaps, some of the real problem is that the not-for-profit colleges and universities don't like the competition, and they realize that they are also in competition not only for the education, but also for those students that have garnered student loans to pay for college in the first place.

Perhaps it's time we consider all this and think on it, and base all of our decisions on reality, and not hyperbole, political hype, or anti-business sentiment just because a large number of vocational schools are for-profit colleges, and not public or not-for-profit colleges. Do you see that point? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.