Generation Debt

Everyone:

There is a massive fleecing of America going on right now, and your congressman deserves to hear about it.

About me: I am a defaulted borrower. I orginally borrowed about $39,000. After leaving my first job out of college (2 weeks prior to September 11th), with only a verbal committment for another position, I found out quickly that no jobs were available for someone with multiple degrees in aerospace engineering. I was unemployed, with no benefits, for over 2 years. I needed unemployment documentation in order to receive a deferment , which I did not have. After trying to deal with the student loan bureacracy and burning through all my assets, I finally gave up and moved back home.

My loans went into default, and were shipped back to Edfund, the "non-profit" agency created by the California Student Aid Foundation, where they promptly tacked on huge collection fees. The last time I checked, I was getting bills for approximately $90,000.

Currently I have a tentative job at a non-profit agency helping disadvantaged people start their own businesses. Funding is never assured, and I have no medical or dental benefits. I have gotten absolutely nothing from my 3 degrees in engineering from USC except my student loan debt.

Enough about me. Here is the bigger picture: Since Federal law was passed around 1997 which makes "getting out of" student loans impossible through bankruptcy, etc, a number of "non-profit, public benefit" agencies have sprung up (like Edfund) who are collecting from defaulted borrowers at massively inflated rates, and who pay no federal income tax.

I found the IRS filings of Edfund, the "public benefit" agency handling my loans, and looked up the salaries of the 5 highest paid employees. I was shocked to find that the salaries of the president, chief counsel, and all other "highest paid employees" had risen by about 40% per year. Sometimes doubling or quadrupiling!!!!!!)

Below is the salary data I compiled. This is current through 2002. I am waiting for Edfund to file for 2003, and I will update what you see below:

Becky Stilling, President

$251504

$214506

$211144

$127815

Rothman (vp finance)

$226795

$179036

$157964

$99876 (Hyde)

Wendie Doyle (Counsel)

$215937

$163854

$36532

-

Dorene Hoops

$174954

$54146

-

-

William Ramsey

$216497

$166464

$143690

$101327

Theresa Bickler

$204760

$184692

$170653

$114456

Callihan

$211127

$193811

$175813

$119062

Damskey

$147183

$99991

-

-

ninemire

$197918

$110881

-

-

As you can see many of the salaries double or triple or more from year to year. And this is an organization that is tasked with collecting debt that is much easier to collect than other types of debt (i.e. private loans, credit cards, etc), since "getting out

of student loan debt is now impossible as per federal law.

PEOPLE: WE ARE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE LEAST ABLE TO PAY OUR DEBTS, AND WE ARE BEING CHARGED FAR MORE THAN WITH OTHER TYPES OF DEBT. WE ARE LINING THE POCKETS OF THESE LAZY BUREAUCRATS WHO HAVE A JOB THAT IS ABOUT AS EASY AS SHOOTING FISH IN A FUCKING BARREL! I AM SO PISSED AT THESE PEOPLE I CAN BARELY SEE STRAIGHT!!

There is a VERY strong case to be made that at a minimum, these agencies should have their tax exempt status stripped.

Please contact me here or at alan_collinge@msn.com so that we can take collective, meaningful action against these vampires.

Best Regards,

Alan

MY POINT IS, THESE "NON-PROFITS" NEED TO HAVE THEIR TAX EXEMPT STATUS STRIPPED.

DIANA. I WOUD LOVE TO WORK WITH YOU ON THIS. I KNOW A COUPLE OF CONGESSMAN, AND ONE SENATOR IN WASHINGTON STATE.

WE'VE GOT AN OPPORTUNITY HERE.

Diana,

I have been periodically researching one-time rule and any legislation pertaining to it for over a year now. I have a high debt load consolidated at 7.45%. I have also written to my U.S. Rep and both Senators numerous times.

My point is: I only came up with generationdebt.org today in my research on google. I did a "view source" on the home page, and I did not see a description or keywords in a meta tag for search criteria. My suggestion would be to make this site much easier to find with some keywords such as: "reauthorization of higher education act" "student consolidation loan" "refinance", and on and on with any permutations. Also, a potentially dumb question: have you submitted this site to google and other search engines?

Can anyone remove the above spam? How annoying!

Took the day off and was just reading up some blogs and thought I would post here

Nice blog, just wanted to say I found you through Google