I attended my second Congressman Horsford event at work yesterday and found that the more faces he wears the more he remains the same. Ostensibly he came to talk about how to make financial aid better, but he was really here to drum up support from students to force the state legislature to act in the next week. His opening video was very partisan, projecting blame, and his solution which he was good enough to publicly declare is one already in place.
I know things about Horsford that he doesn’t like to discuss. His Achilles Heels create a semblance of False Modesty when he honestly owns his weaknesses without declaring them. He does not want to appear weak, and he has been well coached. It was after all was said and done a staged event, and the media seemed to play right into his hands with the way they reported it, focusing on the students, as if they are qualified to make judgments about how higher education should be administered.
Despite all of that, I think Horsford was as surprised as I was by the sentiments from the faculty and staff section. Normally, he plays to friendly audiences rather than proselyting his ideas, and although most of the students bobbled their heads in cadence, even the College President echoed my sentiments in his closing remarks. I was not as alone as I thought I might be. Our VP for Financial Aid thanked me for my comments, and one of his assistants asked for copies of the articles I cited. Horsford used language that made me feel like this was a fishing expedition. He claimed to be there to hear what we had to say, which actually means we want to hear from you if you support our side. Ostensibly, he cared about what the students think, but we know they don’t really care about students who didn’t want Obamacare or want to opt out of SSI or because we know they don’t care about what the as-yet-unborn think. In fact, they slaughter them like shrupshire sheep.
Most of his rhetoric was swung at a cheering and somnambulant student body that clapped at his every notion. His speech typified of the normal liberal of corporations and class warfare. If you destroy corporations, you destroy jobs, and you eventually destroy wealth. They cheered when he asked, “Why should you be on the hook for that?” and proposed an incentive system of loan forgiveness for certain vocations. I don’t know, maybe because you signed a contract? Why should I be responsible? He even went so far as to say “jobs that contribute to society” as if there are some that don’t, and even though he clarified with “more than others” when I pressed him, the first utterance is usually what you really mean. While Horsford criticized tying the rate to the market, he then advocated it while at the same time arguing for more artificially low rates, which is what is creating our current economic problem. Horsford proposed incentives to pay off student debt for “Jobs that contribute to society” as if there are jobs that don’t contribute to society. When I confronted him afterwards, he stratified them, that certain jobs are more difficult to get qualified candidates. There never seems to be a dearth of candidates for public office.
Members of the administration and faculty seemed to share my concerns. We worry about those who are unprepared and ill inclined to complete their degrees and end up with debt without a way to pay it off. One fellow said he paid $17,000 annually towards his student debt. That would cripple most folks. Horsford brought lots of numbers, but he seemed ignorant of the great body of journalistic and scholastic works questioning his premise that college is a panacea. Students don’t realize that someone is on the hook for this or that this kind of debt fetters them in chains of indentured servitude as they pay off the debt. If the students are not disciplined to achieve and then cannot find jobs, what good will the loans do them? I still don’t know why we offer degrees in art history. What do you do with that degree anywhere? It’s hard enough with a science degree to get a job, even for people with a PhD.
Basically, this was a staged appearance. None of the comments in the official meeting from the faculty made the news. Rather, the news reported that it will be difficult for students and showcased a student who isn’t sure the sacrifices will be worth it. What the news didn’t say is that he has been accepted to and decided to attend American University. I went to one I could afford, and so could he. I know the rest of the story, because I was there, and I’m not sure he’s not a plant, because he has been at every Horsford event on campus. Loans may get them into college, but unless we get them out of college and into a job, then it’s not a good investment. It’s a red herring to think that just because college can help that it necessarily will. Most of the rich tech billionaires never finished, and I can name cousins and students who earn more than I do who never earned a degree. It gives you options. What you do with them, like the loans, is entirely up to you.
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