‘Squeeze on Campus’

Uncle Sam’s going to have his hand in my pocket, taking at least 28% of my income for the next 50 years; can the Administration really be shortsighted enough to believe that taxpayers don’t benefit from the guaranteed student loan program? When I graduate in 1988, not only will I be facing a substantial debt from my guaranteed student loan, I’ll be paying for an astronomical amount of guns and butter.

Nobody guaranteed me an Ivy League education, but I wouldn’t have struggled that hard in high school without that dream. My loan only pays for 13% of my yearly college costs, but for a middle-class family that has had to take on second jobs and loans to put my brother and me through college, while contributing a large proportion of its income to the Internal Revenue Service, that 13% helps make it possible.

A guaranteed student loan is a loan--not a gift; unlike some of the United States’ larger debtors, I have to pay it back. Getting a scholarship to an Ivy League college is not easy task, neither is juggling a work-study job and keeping up my grade point average (3.45). I’m not getting a free ride; don’t begrudge me 8% interest that wouldn’t have been a privilege when the officials of this Administration went to college.

MELINDA HARRINGTON

Long Beach