I completely agree with the content of this article. It is clear that many of us are experiencing difficulties in these economic times. I realize that the cost of education is going up, and funding to private universities is dropping at the same time. I certainly do not want to see college students forced into situations where they are saddled with too much debt for years after they graduate. But student loan deduction modifications would certainly help in this environment. I graduated with a B.S. 4 years ago and was laid off about a year ago. Finding a job in this environment that includes a base salary, medical benefits and pays more than minimum wage has been extremely difficult. I currently receive unemployment insurance which is helpful and I appreciate that it is there...but it does not solve the real problem - the lack of good jobs out there in relation to the number of people who are looking and applying. As I am a fairly recent college graduate, I have student loan debt that I continue to pay down monthly even though I am not working. I have thought about going back to school to expand my resume, but I feel that taking on more debt in this environment is a recipe for disaster. I could request a forbearance on my loans, but that is delaying the inevitable and I will have to pay more to SLM as a result. Currently, all of my unemployment insurance goes to food, rent, electric, phone, internet and most of all, student loans. This actually isn't enough to cover everything as I have been slowly but surely spending my savings to cover the costs of living. I have stopped going out and only participate in extremely cheap or free events with friends. I can not wait for the day that I start working again because it means that life can start moving forward again. Of course, life will really start moving forward once my Sallie Mae and Student Loan Corp. financed by citi are paid off. Then I will be able to start doing my part to stimulate the economy again. A larger tax deduction on student loan interest paid would help to accelerate this process quite a bit. A year ago I had grand plans of what life was going to be like going forward. This recessions has brought me back to basics, with my only goals being, get a job, and get rid of debt - everything else is on hold until that is done. Hopefully one of these days the government will realize that this is what most people want and will come up with some real cures, not just band-aids.

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want to stimulate? make Bush's tax cuts permanent.

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want to stimulate? vote conservative!

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want to stimulate? Government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem.
Preident Reagan.

And therein lies the problem. We have 750 billion here and 900 billion there and 4.3 trillion omnibus? How much is a billion? A thousand million? a hundred thousand million? We need to get these liberal, left wing, socialist, tax and spenders out, all the way out. Jeff Flake for president.

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How Silly!

Student loans have so many great advantages already, they don't have to be paid back until after you graduate and the interest rates are super low. I say this program is already geared to giving these people a helping hand........

P.S. I did a Bachelors and then a Masters and I didn' take a penny in student loans. Instead I worked through collage (as did many of my friends).

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As Josh said, "it's great that you worked your way through school and didn't have to take out student loans" but thouands of students do for one reason or another.

I, myself am in student loan debt of over 140k (just for undergrad), not to mention additional loans inccured, just for grad school (which I have yet to finish).

Yes, there are other options that I could have taken at 18, such as: stayed in state, rather than go to a good school out of state, start off at a community college, work like a dog to pay the cost of tution and books and damn near starve, etc...

Student loan debt for tens of thousands is a major problem. At such a young age, I started off with a massive amount of federal and prviate loans and not making enough money coming out of school to cover the minimum payments along with the cost of living.

It's so easy for others to say, "work and pay your way through college", but for many, that may not be a reality.

I personally feel as though something should be done to help the tens if not hundreds of thousands in my shoes. I'm currently unemployed and not receiving unemployment benefits because my state automatically disqualifies those enrolled in school full-time while unemployed.

Yes, I could have appealed, but I did not. With regards to my personal situation, private student loan lenders put a max as to the amount of time you could for deferments and/or forberances. For me, I was told by both AES and Sallie Mae that, that time was 24 months, which I've already used, years ago while finishing up my undergraduate degree.

Many may wonder how this is possible. Well, I transferred from one school to another while a sophmore and used of the bulk of the 6 month grace period, once that grace period was used up I had to turn to in school deferment to stop the payment while I was enrolled in school.

As I previously stated, something needs to be done. There are many more like myself who owe mortgages in student loans and can't afford to even make the minimum payment.

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I think you're confusing two different types of tax deductions: (1) student loan interest payments (which you were referring to) and (2) the two tuition and fees deductions, Hope and Lifetime Learning (which you mentioned by mistake). Hope and Lifetime Learning are deductions for tuition and fees while you're STILL in school. The student loan interest payment deductions are deductions you can take anytime you pay the interest of student loans--i.e., including after you graduate.

You're right, though, that $2,500 is way too small. Especially because the government doesn't provide enough in federal student loans to cover the cost of many schools, it should significantly reduce the tax burden on graduates who are forced to pay interest on loans. For example, federal Stafford loans are capped at $18,500 for grad students, but the law school I attended charges tuition of $42,000 a year (plus living expenses, books, etc), so I had to take out a total of $190,000 in student loans, the majority of which were private loans with high interest rates. I'm charged thousands of dollars a year in interest, but I'm only allowed to deduct $2,500 in interest payments from my taxes. What's worse, student loan debt is incredibly difficult to have discharged by declaring bankruptcy. The privilege of attending a top school shouldn't be limited to those from wealthy families, so if the government won't offer enough student loans itself (effectively forcing people to get private loans), it should at the very least provide tax relief to graduates in the form of more deductions and credits for student loan interest payments. It's ridiculous that so much focus is being put on homeowners with mortgages with unfavorable terms, while graduates with crushing student loan debt (who can't even get to the point where they can even think about getting a mortgage) are being left out to dry.

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To: Michele -

when, may I ask, did you attend undergrad.??

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i understand the situation we are all in but remember this we all chose to come to college and university and we all must pay back what we borrow .i understand we all need relief but if we want to reduce our student loans a part time job might be more appropriate .

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