Teacher Loans, The Mosquito, Free Tuition

Federal Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program Is Not Working Guest: Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO It's back to school for students around the country. Many –if not most –of their teachers are still paying off the loans they took out to get the college degree that qualified them to be in the classroom. A decade ago, Congress created a program to encourage people to work in public service jobs like teaching, nursing or law enforcement. The promise was that if you worked for ten years in a qualifying profession and kept up on your monthly payments, the government would forgive the rest of your student loans at the 10-year mark. The trouble is that hardly anyone –less than 1 percent of the estimated 32 million people who qualify for the program –has actually had their student debt erased. So the American Federation of Teachers is suing the US Department of Education for mismanaging and sabotaging the debt forgiveness program.  The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator Guest: Timothy Winegard, Instructor of History, Men’s Hockey Head Coach, Colorado Mesa University Mosquitoes have a way of shaping outdoor summer plans. Camping trips cut short. Patio dinners moved indoors. The pesky blood-suckers have even more influence than that. The course of human history has been shaped by mosquitoes and the deadly diseases they spread. Wars have been won and lost because of mosquitoes. Economies have risen and fallen. Free Tuition Programs Are Not Solution to Higher Education Costs Guest: Robert Kelchen, Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall University, Author of “Higher Education Accountability” Wiping out student debt, free college for all -the most progressive Democratic candidates for president are making big promises they hope will win them support from young voters. And some states –Texas most recently –are expanding their scholarship and grant programs to reduce the crushing burden of student debt. The trouble is, a program like that will be hard to kee