Letters to the Editor: It’s ‘exceedingly cruel’ to garnish Social Security for seniors with student loan debt

To the editor: Seniors who have student loan debt that was never resolved are in danger of being made homeless because of efforts to collect on that debt (“Older people in crosshairs as government restarts Social Security garnishment on student loans,” May 16). This seems exceedingly cruel.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon says restarting collection is a necessary step for debtors, “both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook.”

As usual, this requires a step-by-step individual consideration when making these decisions. That’s not happening.

Mindy Taylor-Ross, Venice

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To the editor: If a person is still paying back his or her loans into their older years, then they picked the wrong school and the wrong major. My feeling is that the middle class has gotten tricked into believing that if their child gets into an elite university, then they have the keys to the good life. The problem with this belief is this: Their child may attend an expensive elite school but study in a low-paying major. Thus, their child’s debt becomes a specter haunting their life for decades.

Unless your child is going to study in a STEM field or some other high-paying major, encourage them to choose a school where their student debt won’t be a curse on their lives even into their golden years.

Mark Walker, Yorba Linda