With series of proposals, Bart tries to make mark

This is the story of how I am being coerced into an INDENTURED SERVITUDE and how the US Government has sanctioned one industry to prey on our children in re-instituting INDENTURED SERVITUDE legally in 21st century AMERICA.

In 1988, I was formally classified as disabled by the US Department of Social Security Disability. I could no longer continue to perform my job as an iron worker in the New Orleans area due to a disabling knee injury from childhood (acquired a bone eating disease) that grew progressively worse with age. At the age of 38, I acquired unemployment disability, section 8 housing, Vocational Rehabilitation assistance, and food stamps in joining the rolls of disabled Americans.

I did not want to be on welfare and had great optimism to pursue the American Dream. I decided I had nothing to loose by seeking an education to remove myself off of disability and into a viable tax paying vocation. I had a wife and twin 6 year old children to support. So, I began investigating schools in my area.

Initially, I attempted to enroll in Tulane University because it was the only university in my area that offered the Chemical Engineering curriculum which interested me. However, Tulane informed me that I could not attend their school because I did not have a "track record" (GPA, ACT score, etc), since I had been out of high school for 19 years. They informed me that I would have to go to another school to establish a track record.

So, I enrolled at Delgado Community College in New Orleans. I attended for three years and graduated Magna Cum Laude with two degrees, Electronics Servicing and General Science. I took every Math, Chemistry, and Physics class the college offered for the General Science degree. The problem was that I could not find a job in either degree after three years of student loans.

Then, the Dean of Tulane University engineering school sent me an invitation to meet with him. Subsequently, the Dean offered me a 4 year "need Based" scholarship to the Tulane engineering school valued at nearly $100,000 in tuition. I explained that I had two children to support, but he insisted that the only condition for this scholarship is that I must attend full time. So I accepted, knowing that I would be forced to make more school loans for books and to feed my family. At least there seemed to be a chance that we may educate our way out of poverty.

For the next four years, 1991-1995, I attended Tulane Engineering School on scholarship, while I received Sallie Mae school loans to help support my family. We also received food stamps and lived in section 8 housing. You know, like the projects and the government subsidizes part of the rent. In 1995, I graduated with a 3.0 GPA for a BS in Chemical Engineering.

I consolidated my school loans and the total came to $40,000 at 9% interest. In March of 1996 I acquired a job with International Paper Company located in Camden, Arkansas. I began repaying my school loan to Sallie Mae at about $363 monthly. I thought I had successfully achieved my goal of educating myself off of unemployment disability.

**Please note that I attended both Delgado College and Tulane University with foreign students. Many of these foreign students were from countries like Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Taiwan etc. Many of these students were receiving the Federal Pell Grant and free tuition and non repayable grants to attend American universities. These foreign students did not have student loans to repay for their education and many of them don't contribute anything to the American tax base after graduation if they decide not to work in this country. The American taxpayer pays their tab in full. They essentially take home a great education and an elevated status in their home work force for free.

I worked for International Paper (IP) for three years. After a year of payments to Sallie Mae, I received a statement from Sallie Mae detailing the amount of my monthly payments and amounts applied each to principal and interest. I noticed that the numbers did not make sense. On several months, no amount was applied to principal at all. On several occasions, I telephoned Sallie Mae and inquired about this discovery. No one was able to explain where the money was going or why nothing was applied to principal on some months. On a few of the telephone inquiries, a Sallie Mae supervisor was put on the phone with me and each time I spoke with a supervisor, they could not explain the P&I distributions at that time, but claimed they would find out and get back to me with the explanation. Each time, they never got back to me with anything. (I still have the P&I statement and the Sallie Mae telephone records indicating the dates we spoke.) I took the detailed Sallie Mae statement to a CPA and asked if they could explain the method of amortization and distribution to interest and principal. The CPA also did not understand the financing method. Frustrated at the lack of response from Sallie Mae, I called and demanded an explanation and notified the SM representative that I would, "discontinue further payments until someone explained to me the distributions and why my principal was not going down". No one responded to my simple inquiry, so, I discontinued making payments in an effort to force a response.
In the meantime, in 1998 I researched an orthopedic surgeon and located one of the best at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota who had acquired the technology to possibly allow me an opportunity to walk normally. I decided to chance the risk of amputation for the opportunity to walk almost normally, without pain. Dr. Arlen Haansen successfully performed an unusual knee replacement through the grace of GOD, while I was employed with International Paper Company and miraculously, I was no longer disabled.

In 1999, International Paper Company at Camden, Arkansas was doing poorly financially, and the plant manager explained to me the company would probably shut the plant down or sell it. Camden, Arkansas is a small town of 10,000 people with this IP plant was the primary industry and main support of the town. I began looking for another job immediately. I also put my home in Camden on the market for sale immediately.

That year, I began new employment with Boise Cascade located in DeRidder, Louisiana. I continued to market my home in Camden for sale. Shortly after we moved to DeRidder, Louisiana, International Paper Co shut down the plant in Camden, Arkansas and dismantled it. Hundreds of homes flooded the market for sale with no industry to support potential buyers. I continued paying those house notes in Camden until January, 2001. I also continued trying to sell it to no avail. Sallie Mae continued to "hound" me for monthly payments without explanation of the amortization. I mistakenly informed Sallie Mae that I was being forced into bankruptcy. Sallie Mae immediately classified my loans as "default status" and turned it over to one of their collection agencies. The collection agency immediately contacted me with the "default status" and an added 18% of my balance to the principal as a default fee. A month later (March, 2001), I was forced into bankruptcy, Chapter 7 to relieve the debts from the home back in Camden, Sallie Mae school loans, and the credit cards. However, though I claimed bankruptcy, Sallie Mae school loans are not forgiven and are exempt from federal bankruptcy laws. How can that be legal? That legislation obviously enriched Sallie Mae stock of which I'm sure many of our legislators own shares.

I also went bankrupt against the collection agency which Sallie Mae also owns. Sallie Mae simply switched the loan to another one of their collection agencies which was not named in my bankruptcy and after the bankruptcy was complete, continued their collection efforts in spite of the Federal Bankruptcy Court. I thought that by going bankrupt against the collection agency, I could eliminate the collection agency's 18% default fees. I thought that only Sallie Mae was exempt from federal bankruptcy claims, not collection agencies. I knew that Sallie Mae was guaranteed by the Fed not to lose money on a school loan. I did not realize that Sallie Mae owned the collection agency companies, also.

Though I turned over many stones in search of an attorney, none would touch a case against Sallie Mae.

In July of 2001, I took another job. I began employment at Wellman, Inc, a plastics manufacturer located in Bay St Louis, Mississippi. Now my credit was destroyed, we lost our home in Camden through the bankruptcy, and Sallie Mae was destroying any further rebuilding of credit through the credit bureaus and continues to do so today. After the bankruptcy, I contacted the Sallie Mae ombudsman and tried to work out our differences. I was allowed to pay the minimum of $200 per month for one year to take my Sallie Mae loans out of default status. Looking back, I realize why Sallie Mae didn't respond to my inquiries about the P&I amortization. Sallie Mae encouraged me to default on my school loan and was obviously legally rewarded handsomely for it. Sallie Mae added the 18% collection fee costs plus interest and compounded it all daily and suddenly I owe more than $92,000 and climbing.

Meanwhile, my twins are 26 years old, grown and married and moved away and my wife and I still do not have a home to live in.

Further divisive tactics....to the credit bureaus, Sallie Mae is claiming my loan prior to the bankruptcy as a separate loan in which I claimed bankruptcy against (even though Sallie Mae knows you can't claim bankruptcy against a school loan). Sallie Mae has actually stated on the credit reports that this loan was "included" in the bankruptcy. (If Sallie Mae has considered the loan "included in the bankruptcy", then I should be relieved from the debt.) Then, Sallie Mae has claimed this same loan as an additional loan which is "current" and in deferment, also on the same credit report with an outstanding balance of $92,000 and an original loan amount of $40,000. Combined, these two separate claims on the same credit report are over six figures of indebtedness on my credit reports. Although I contacted Sallie Mae and the Credit bureaus about this "double dipping", the Credit bureaus claim they are reporting it as Sallie Mae dictates and Sallie Mae refuses to change their claims. My only recourse was to add my statement to the credit report, which the credit bureau omitted anyway.

Consequently, Sallie Mae keeps tightening the noose in an attempt to force me into a modern form of INDENTURED SERVITUDE. I cannot get loan approval to purchase a home regardless. Therefore my primary objective, to get off of welfare, pursue the American Dream of owning a home, and pay my debts and taxes as a viable contributing citizen had become moot.

As a matter of principal, I called Sallie Mae and asked them whether or not they thought that I would spend the remainder of my working life (I'm 58 years old now) working just to pay their loan (higher costs than loan sharks) without the chance of the American Dream to own a home? I requested a written reply to the question, "would Sallie Mae garnish my social security?" They wrote back stating that they would NOT garnish my Social Security. I have the letter in writing. What they cleverly omitted is that they have others in their system (a system of collection agencies) that would garnish my Social Security for Sallie Mae, they would not do it themselves. They are currently garnishing others Social Security. How obscene ...and our legislators have allowed this to be legal!

The US Government should reward me for getting off of welfare, as a former tax
burden to the American public and for becoming a tax contributor as a Chemical Engineer. At the very least, all interest and fees should be negated due to the divisive tactics utilized to accumulate them and my loan should revert back to the original principal amount minus payments received. I refuse to follow Sallie Mae's immoral program into INDENTURED SERVITUDE for my remaining working years and beyond even if it is LEGAL. Someone has to understand how unjust the school loan industry has become and how our legislators have provided these loan sharking operations such as Sallie Mae more power than the IRS. Before greed took over, this industry may have been a viable system for lower income people to attain an education. However, the school loan industry today will not negotiate and answers to no other agency. The IRS does both.

Further, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit my residence in Pass Christian, Mississippi directly...destroyed the house I was renting and destroyed all of our furnishings and possessions. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.....AGAIN.

It has come to my understanding and in lieu of my experience that school loans have destroyed more homes than Hurricane Katrina and the toll continues to climb. The true statistics are being suppressed. I would prefer to be homeless and a FREE AMERICAN rather than an "INDENTURED SERVANT" to Sallie Mae. Now our legislators must realize the monster they have supported preys on our children’s lives. For many, the American Dream has become the future American Nightmare. If my experience would contribute to getting a muzzle put on this monster of an industry which the US Government has sanctioned to feed on our children, then I will enthusiastically contribute.

M.J.A.

First I want to say that Mr. Bart is the ONLY candidate that has the insight to see the student loan issue clearly. The rest of the sellouts that we have had, and currently have in government only care about lining their pockets from kickbacks from folks like salliemae. My loans have gone from approximately 43,000.00 to currently over 174,000.00 and climbing. How did this happen? From the preditory practices of Salliemae. As I can not even afford the interest payments this monster continues to skyrocket out of sight. Some might want to label me a deadbeat, or someone looking for a handout, but nothing could be further from the truth. I am a Honorably Discharged US Airforce veteran who gave 6 years in service to the country. I am currently a school counselor working in an underserved area of Northern NY, and have doneso for the last 14 years. I have extensively written to my elected officals. I have also contacted the ombudsman office (what a joke), vetrans administration, attorney general, lawyers, the media, and anyone else that I can think of, and all are completely inept to offer any meaningful help. Based on my own personal hell with student loans, and that of millions of others in the same or worse boat I have the following reflections which pain me to say, but I truely feel in my heart. First, I regret serving a government (not the people) that would enable gistopo-like tactics against it's own people. The good people currently enslaved by the student loan industry (and blessed by the Dept of Education) are guilty of nothing more than trying to make a better life for themselves by doing what society tells us - go to college, get an education so you can get a good job and acquire the so-called American Dream. Sadly, we were completely duped! I would NEVER advise a young person to go to college if they needed even a dime of student loans (it's just not worth it). Better to be poor and free, then a SLAVE to this crooked system. As was said in the recent 60 minutes piece, "we have been served up like turkey's to the thanksgiving day slaughter". Just think about it......who needs student loans? Well, those who do not have the means or family resources to pay (and obviously that would include minorities, and other disadvantaged socioeconomic groups). So therefore the current system serves to do 2 things: deny access to those who can't pay (so they can't compete in the marketplace), or financially enslave those that try to better their conditions. I pray that Mr. Bart is elected in a landside victory, and that his leadership can begin to correct some of the injustice that have been committed against so many good people.
Kevin M. Dailey
Central Square, NY

While I feel that the government shouldn't be in the buisness of student loans-- period. I congratulate Bart in coming up with a start to help those of us loaded down with student loan debt. I owe over 110,000.00 in student loan and hold a Government Job that pays 55,000 a year. I am not sure how I will pay it back unless there is some kind of amnesty and possibly bankruptcy protection.

As a life-long Democrat, it pains me to know that my party would support the system which turned my $100, 000 loan for podiatry school, into the $500,000 monstrosity it is today! Being prevented from participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs, I now sit on the sidelines, working various and sundry jobs - trying to keep my family above water, while my community suffers the absence of my training, expertise and dedication. How can any inner city community afford to be devoid of a integral citizen who had sacrificed so much, to only now, be allowed to contribute so little? Mr. Bart, you're no Republican, you're a common-sensical, thinking patriot who has my vote.

Bravo to Rick Bart for seeing how horrible the U.S. Student Loan system has become. Its ironic that it takes an outsider republican to shine a light on this issue, and even more shameful that Rick Larsen sided with the banks on this issue.

Shame on Rick Larsen.