LETTER: Loan forgiveness lets students avoid responsibility for choices

To Ozaukee Press:

I believe that an education is a wonderful thing and that one should commit to lifelong learning.

I paid for all of my education with hard work and savings all the way through a doctoral program. I went to a community college for my first two years while living at home while my father was dying.

I have been a university professor for over 35 years and I would be the first to tell you that not everybody in college should be there.

I believe a university education should offer two parts: A product—exposure to a career opportunity (accounting for me); and a process—exposure to a broad intellectual process (my favorite course was Greek mythology).

Now to the point, I am opposed to student loan forgiveness. Young adults are expected to act like adults and consider their actions. If you major in accounting, you will likely get a job after graduation. If you major in ancient history with a focus on Greek mythology, it is likely that you will not get a job in that field. In both cases the choice was yours, the educational costs were the same, but the ability to repay the student loans is likely different.

Choices have consequences, and one must take responsibility for those consequences. Every day we make choices, hopefully wise and informed, but they don’t always turn out the way we had hoped. We must own the choices and the resulting consequences.

A hypothetical question: I bought a new $50,000 truck versus a used truck, in part financed with a loan, so that I could do part-time work using the truck, but now there is not much work and I can not make my truck loan payments. Should my loan be forgiven in part or in whole? It was my choice to buy a truck. Should I own the consequences?

William Taylor
Cedarburg