Let’s go beyond free tertiary education
With the advent of free tertiary training over the next three years it would seem fair to also consider the plight of those ex-students and graduates who are still struggling to pay off crippling student loans. If the Government decided to cancel their student debt, it would cost the Government nothing and lift a huge weight from these ex-students’ shoulders, perhaps allowing them to buy their first home.
With this Government recognising that tertiary education not only benefits the person who gains the qualification but also the community in which they live and work through the provision of high-quality professional services, it would seem an appropriate next step to see this debt as an investment in human capital and let it go.
By the same token the debt owed by beneficiaries who were forced to find other ways to supplement a meagre income could also be cancelled. With the Government recognising the level of income for beneficiaries was below the poverty line, then one could say that continuing to seek redress from those who in desperation found a way to help pay for their food and rent would be purely punitive and inconsistent with the values now being espoused. Heather Jonson
Lincoln
Taxpayer keeps giving
Parliament has now passed the no study fees bill. On December 6, you printed a photo of our PM at Aotea College, Porirua. Everybody is all smiles as she brings news of great largesse from the taxpayer. So great that one student is to go to Otago to study commerce. He does not need to study commerce as the student knows how to work the system already – just imagine, $65 per week to party up if he feels so inclined! Beats living at home and catching a train to Victoria.
The election-winning interestfree loans are very good for the frugal. I know of students who borrowed as much as they could to invest after meeting their needs. If all goes to plan, the loan is paid off by investment returns and they end up with the capital, courtesy of the ever-generous taxpayer. John Vile
Blenheim