Stafford Loan Foreclosures Swamping Gov't With College Degrees

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The US Department of Education has been foreclosing on delinquent Stafford Student Loans at a tremendous rate for the last two years.  It appears that a college degree "bubble" has been developing and burst in late 2007, causing the US Government to start foreclosing on the degrees, which graduates are abandoning in droves.  For now, the government is reselling the degrees through the internet site "GetMyDegreeFast", but this is becoming more difficult as the piles of unwanted paper get larger.

An Education Department spokesperson, Evan Vabort, testified before congress on the problem, saying "One issue is that many college degrees appear to be losing value these days, especially ones devoted to the arts or culture.  Take a degree in Womens Studies, for example.  Our research is showing that about half the US population is already studying women - with no formal training at all.  While no one disputes that the rigors of college study can better prepare you in this area, there is a lot of competition out there.  Anyone who has walked past a construction site can see it first hand - there are some very talented amateurs out there in the field of Womens Studies."

Mr. Vabort's testimony also discussed how companies are concentrating more on their core business in this difficult economic environment.  "We've discovered that companies are reducing or eliminating their cultural studies departments altogether."

One telling example is Acme Corporation, which recently changed the company mission statement to reflect their increased focus on engineering, manufacturing, and sales.  In August 2008, their website provided the company mission as "We Produce High Quality Rabbit Destruction Equipment and Information About the Racist, Horrible United States".  In November of this year, however, the mission statement was modified to be simply "We Produce High Quality Rabbit Destruction Equipment", resulting in about 400 layoffs.  The company has not responded to inquiries about this change.

Mr. Vabort went on to describe the shift this is causing in hiring practices, as graduates either abandon their degrees or try to struggle by in the degree they have.  "In the past, most companies would hire a few PhDs in 'Asian Studies' or 'Black American and Diasporic Studies'.  We're seeing this less and less, unfortunately, and those employees are tending to take jobs in the PV/L [Editors note: Professional Victim / Litigant] sector of the economy."