Elizabeth Warren on Education Massachusetts Senator; head of CFPB

Why should government earn $174B profit on student loans?

Not long after I was sworn in, some complex language seemed to say that student loans were turning a profit for the U. S. government. We dug deeper still and learned that overall, the federal government was on track to make about $174 billion in profits on its student loan portfolio. That's $174 billion. Off the backs of a bunch of young people who had to borrow money to make it through school. Oh, Lord.

The way I looked at it, that $174 billion was basically an extra tax on kids who go to college but whose parents can't afford to write a check for it.

Giant banks pay less than 1 percent interest.

While students were paying 6 percent, 8 percent, or higher on their student loans.

Preserve Head Start and school lunch programs

Invest in public education & universal preschool

Give college students the same deal as corporations get

Allow refinancing student loans; it's a crushing $1.2T

SEN. WARREN: No. So let's start by just reminding everybody what this is. Our young people are being crushed by student loan debt, $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, and it is exploding. In less than a decade, student loan debt has gone up 71% for the average amount that young people are borrowing. This is a crisis that now is not just affecting families that get hurt by it, it's affecting the whole economy.

Bank on Students Act: reduce student loan interest rates

Focus on public schools & public universities

Comprehensive sex ed for sexually-active adolescents.

Award competitive grants to provide adolescents with comprehensive sex education to:

1. replicate evidence-based sex education programs,
2. substantially incorporate elements of evidence-based sex education programs, or
3. create a demonstration project based on generally accepted characteristics of effective sex education programs.

1. deliberately withhold life-saving information about HIV;
2. are medically inaccurate or have been scientifically shown to be ineffective;
3. promote gender stereotypes;
4. are insensitive and unresponsive to the needs of sexually active youth or lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender youth; or
5. are inconsistent with the ethical imperatives of medicine and public health.

Opponent's argument against bill: (Nick Wing on Huffington Post) An abstinence-only effort, introduced the same day, the Abstinence Education Reallocation Act, stands as an effective counter to the Democratic-backed Real Education for Healthy Youth Act.

According to the text of the abstinence-only bill, sex education programs would need to be "medically accurate" and teach the "skills and benefits of sexual abstinence as the optimal sexual health behavior for youth" in order to qualify for grant money. The bill also calls for applicable programs to focus on the "holistic health, economic, and societal benefits that can be gained by refraining from non-marital sexual activity," as well as to provide an "understanding of how drugs, alcohol, and the irresponsible use of social media can influence sexual decision-making and can contribute to risky and often aggressive sexual behavior."