Here's a bottom up bailout idea: forgive compounded interest on student loans [View All]

[yurbud]

Alternet had a good story on kids getting out of college and only being able to get crappy service jobs for years, so the interest piles up on their loans and makes them more and more unmanageable.

That is exactly what happened to me. I went to grad school hoping to become a community college instructor. It took me a couple of years to get my first teaching job, but even then, because I had to patch together several part time jobs, I wasn't able to make regular payments for seven or eight years--partly because none of my schools gave me health insurance for that period and I had to do it out of pocket.

Consequently, my debt doubled from $50,000 to more than $100,000.

That interest isn't even going to the federal government but to Chase Bank, who consolidated my loans.

I want to repay my debts, but when it is virtually impossible even when I have a government job, something is profoundly wrong. I'm sure a lot of people here have similar stories.