EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
State Senator Ronald Rice, a key spokesman for the people of our community and beyond, is retiring on August 31st due to his health. He’s had that post since his predecessor, State Senator John P. Caufield, died on August 24, 1986.
Rice has served as a Senator for about 35 years. With the support of Newark Mayor Sharpe James, Rice won in a special election in November 1986 to fill the vacant seat. Since then, he has been elected nine times and has mastered the art of supporting those in need and keeping the peace in the political arena as well.
Now the question is: who will replace him. The rumors are that the main person is Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, as she is close to Mayor Ras Baraka and the Democratic Party. The County Democratic Committee in a newly redrawn district will decide the face of the nomination. Is she a lock to win the upcoming election in November 2022 to fill the remainder of the term? No one knows.
Betsy Walker’s name has also come up from the community. But I don’t think it is under consideration. Linda Baraka, wife of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, is the chief of staff for Tucker. Baraka’s weight on the political decision is the key to filling the space until the end of this year for Senator Rice. However, some of the community members I spoke to are not favoring Tucker.
Per The White House: “The Department of Education will provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers are eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 ($250,000 for married couples).
“No high-income individual or high-income household – in the top 5% of incomes – will benefit from this action. To ensure a smooth transition to repayment and prevent unnecessary defaults, the pause on federal student loan repayment will be extended one final time through December 31, 2022. Borrowers should expect to resume payment in January 2023.
“Fixing the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by proposing a rule that borrowers who have worked at a nonprofit, in the military, or in federal, state, tribal, or local government, receive appropriate credit toward loan forgiveness. These improvements will build on temporary changes the Department of Education has already made to PSLF, under which more than 175,000 public servants have already had more than $10 billion in loan forgiveness approved.
“Cutting monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans. The Department of Education is proposing a new income-driven repayment plan that protects more low-income borrowers from making any payments and caps monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income – half of the rate that borrowers must pay now under most existing plans. This means that the average annual student loan payment will be lowered by more than $1,000 for both current and future borrowers.”
However, Biden’s plan does not show support to postgraduate students. Also, a 5% payment cap linked to income per year does not relieve them, as interest rate relief is not there. The cost of attending college has skyrocketed. In 2000, the cost for public college was a little over $3,500 and private college was a little over $15,000. In 2021, it was little over $10,700 for public institutions and a little over $38,700 for private institutions. The government Pell Grant has a limitation. So, the majority of students have to borrow money under their FAFSA with a private lender.
Most of the students pay their student loan debt for over 20 years after they graduate. If you miss a student loan payment, and your interest for borrowing goes very high, and your credit score dives rapidly to the bottom. Plus, while it is not impossible, getting student loans discharged in bankruptcy is very difficult.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
