0:01 No douf.
0:04 >> Thank you, chairman, uh very much uh for
0:06 yielding and especially for holding this
0:09 hearing and to chairman Wahlberg. This
0:11 is an incredibly
0:14 important question to virtually every
0:16 family in the United States. The first
0:18 question is what do you want to do when
0:21 you grow up? Which turns into
0:24 whether it's 9th, 10th, 11th grade, are
0:27 you going to college?
0:30 with the assumption is that's the first
0:33 and best and only answer in so many
0:36 ways. Do you want to go to college?
0:38 Well, the fact of the matter is, you
0:39 know, for every parent having that
0:41 discussion with their child is, do you
0:43 want to go to college? Do you want to
0:44 serve your nation and go into the
0:46 military or do you want to go to a trade
0:49 school? Because at the end of the day,
0:51 whether it's college, military, it's
0:54 what is your career? What is going to be
0:58 your job? Uh, student loans, I say it
1:00 all the time, is one of the greatest
1:03 things we ever done and one of the worst
1:06 things we've ever done because for
1:10 parents who care so much about their
1:11 children, they want to do what's right
1:14 by them
1:19 to pay $80,000 to go to college for one year.
1:20 year.
1:23 First of all, let's back up.
1:26 We talk about like every child knows I
1:28 want to go to college and this is what I
1:30 want to do. I would love to see the
1:33 statistics of asking that child what job
1:35 or career that they're going for and
1:39 where do they end up if we hit 5050. I
1:42 would be surprised and this is the
1:44 reason I'm bringing this up is having
1:48 that discussion with the parents and the
1:51 child of what the true costs are is
1:54 incredibly important. Nobody has
1:56 mentioned community college is this what
1:59 I want to do because that is the most
2:01 affordable accessible for any child and
2:04 then move into a fouryear and go on. But
2:06 the idea that so often they want to
2:09 chase that uh picture that they see it's
2:11 a great sports team and listen we just
2:13 came off a great weekend of watching
2:16 sports for college football and how many
2:18 children pick those schools simply
2:21 because of the academic program or the
2:25 sports programs. So true cost is such
2:27 relevant issue. Earlier in your
2:29 testimony, you talked about the net cost.
2:32 cost.
2:34 When you just talked about the funding
2:36 for higher education, you said it went
2:38 up. Of course, it does. Everybody raises
2:40 it. But what is the true cost against
2:42 inflation? That would absolutely change
2:46 it. So, a having the right information,
2:48 calling it the right thing, that
2:50 terminology is so important. We can do
2:54 this and I am very much uh focused on
2:58 that. uh the terminology
3:02 and the basic costs for a college
3:05 you talked about repeatedly there are
3:08 you can buy the Chevy or you can buy the
3:10 Cadillac and we need to address those
3:12 issues to go through the school and the
3:14 idea of saying there should be a cost
3:17 guarantee if it's two-year college your
3:20 cost there so we we're having a great discussion
3:22 discussion
3:25 uh for something that ends up being the
3:27 biggest decision in many people's life
3:29 other than getting married and having
3:31 children. This is so important that we
3:34 consider what takes place at the time of
3:37 these decisions because it impacts the
3:40 parents who might have to help the child
3:42 and it certainly is going to impact that
3:47 child making that decision. So transparency,
3:49 transparency,
3:53 uh, Miss Lady, talk to me about when
3:56 this child and this parent are making a
4:00 decision, what goes into making that
4:02 decision that impacts are they actually
4:04 looking like, gee, to go there, it's
4:06 going to cost me a half a million
4:09 dollars to send you there for something
4:12 that you may or may not do. When we
4:15 talking about transparency and the
4:18 terminology also the decision making
4:20 what goes into that and the studies that
4:23 you've been part of. How do the parents
4:29 >> Ideally they should be making that
4:32 decision with really good information
4:34 and really good complete and honest
4:37 data. And right now they're not. And
4:39 just to be a little bit crude about it,
4:41 it's garbage in, garbage out in terms of
4:43 if you have really misleading
4:45 information that is on these financial
4:47 aid offers. Uh in our research, we have
4:50 found uh in addition to some of the
4:51 issues that I mentioned at the top,
4:54 there are colleges that will list loans
4:57 like parent plus loans and put them as
5:00 if they are gifts, as if they are awards
5:02 that they do not have to pay back. One
5:05 of my favorite and horrible examples is
5:07 there's a a college um there was a
5:09 letter that at the very bottom of it, it
5:11 had all of the the grants and loans and
5:13 things and at the very bottom of it, it
5:16 said, "Your out-ofpocket cost is zero,"
5:18 which is amazing. That's great. I don't
5:20 have to pay anything to go to college.
5:24 But in that letter, parent plus loans of
5:27 $27,000 were listed. Student loans were
5:29 listed, but they were like, "Pus, who
5:32 knows what Pus is? Do you know what P
5:33 you know what P plus is? Everybody in
5:35 this committee knows what P plus is, but
5:36 most people don't know what that is. And
5:39 that's because the the information is I
5:41 I I will disagree with my colleague
5:43 Justin here a little bit about whether
5:45 or not it's intentionally deceptive. I
5:47 think for some colleges it's not and I
5:49 think for some colleges it is because
5:53 it's this tool is both helping students
5:55 uh try to understand the cost of college
5:58 but it's a marketing tool for schools to
