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Petition to The Whitehouse Regarding 'Student Loan' Abuses by
Higher Ed

The Register petitions The Whitehouse to use its 'bully
pulpit' to ask lawmakers to enact legislation addressing the looming Higher
Education crisis in America: Higher Education is declining, but tuition is
unbearably high – and rapidly increasing.

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(PRWEB) November 28, 2011

On September 22, 2011, The Whitehouse launched the “We the People” online
petition process on WhiteHouse.gov– a new platform to give Americans a way to
create and sign petitions on a range of issues affecting our nation. If a
petition gathers enough online signatures, it will be reviewed by policy experts
and an official response will be issued by The Whitehouse.

Official website: https://wwws.Whitehouse.gov/petitions

The Register, a conservative online newspaper, became aware of America's
Higher Education crisis and investigated. Led by editor-in-chief, Gordon W.
Watts, a non-lawyer, whose main claim to fame is his court case which almost won
on behalf of Terri Schiavo, The Register initiated the petition process to seek
a multi-pronged solution to the various problems:

UP: Skyrocketing college tuition up –at rate far above consumer price
index

DOWN: Quality of American higher education down –below other nations

UP: Dramatic rise in student loan defaults

DOWN: Crippled economy due to unbearably high debt burden on students

UP: Resulting spike in suicides directly attributable stress from debt
stress among students

NEW: 'Student Loan' debt surpassing 'Credit Card' debt for the first time
in America's history

The petition, created last week, seeking fair treatment for college students,
is posted to the Whitehouse's website at: http://wh.gov/jU8

Under Whitehouse rules, the petition will become searchable on the Whitehouse
website if it reaches 150 signatures, which will make the goal of the second
'threshold' much easier due to public visibility on The Whitehouse website. A
second, but lesser-known “benefit” of reaching the 150-signature threshold, is
the 'immortality' status, in which the petition will become permanently archived
in The Whitehouse website, and still eligible to receive signatures, even after
the 'expiration' period for an official Whitehouse response.

The Register discovered this little-known fact about The Whitehouse petition
process when it observed the 'expired' petition https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/promote-enforce-teaching-evolution-over-creationism/H4HkDs0B
created Sept 24, 2011, well over a month ago, but still present at The
Whitehouse website and eligible to receive signatures. By contrast, another
petition ( http://wh.gov/24m) was deleted after its expiration
period, since it did not reach the '150-signature' threshold. Therefore, The
Register is issuing an official statement of a short-term goal of reaching 150
signatures on http://wh.gov/jU8

Conservatives supporting this petition view the unbearably high tuition as
legally a tax, as it flows to the government, State Universities in most
cases.

Liberals are supporting this petition are concerned about the fact that
student borrowers do not have 'Standard Consumer Protections,' which even
credit card users have.

Economic experts of all political stripes have noted the easy availability
of huge 'student loans' allows students to borrow more, thus enticing colleges
to charge more, driving tuition prices through the roof.

For further information, see recent coverage of this issue at the official
mirrors of The Register:

GordonWatts.com
or
GordonWayneWatts.com

The Register's official statement asks that all interested parties sign the
petition and forward it to college students who are seeking fair treatment and
reform of the current level of abuses.

PETITION LINK: http://wh.gov/jU8
or alternatively:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/ask-lawmakers-pass-legislation-address-higher-ed-crisis-education-declining-tuition-obscenely-high/8bdC5t8V

Other resources, not officially affiliated with The Register, but sharing
similar goals:
http://SignOn.org/sign/want-a-real-economic?source=c.url&r_by=525506
(Another petition)
http://ConsumerFinance.gov/chime-in-on-private-student-loans
(Government website)
http://ThirstForJustice.net/Higher-Ed-Tuition-Costs.html
(Position Paper)

See also:
ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com (focus on forgiveness of unbearably
burdensome student debt)
StudentLoanJustice.org (focus on return of Standard
Consumer Protections for student loans)
USPirg.org/higher-education
(Consumer group seeking to decrease student reliance on college loans by
increasing grant aid)
ProjectOnStudentDebt.org (Non-profit think tank)

Sources documenting alarming rise in suicide directly related solely to
Student Loan defaults:

[*] “Crushing debt” (Chicago Sun-Times, BY DAVE NEWBART) September 24, 2007
"Jan Yoder was preparing for her son's funeral when the phone rang. It was
another student loan collector wanting to know when her son would pay up…It was
those calls and the burden of crushing debt, she says, that led her depressed
son to take the drastic action of killing himself late last month. ''When it
gets to the point where people are fleeing the country, going off the grid or
taking their own lives, you know something has gone horribly wrong,'' said Alan
Collinge, founder of Student Loan Justice (StudentLoanJustice.org), which is
pushing to change student lending laws.” (Higher Ed NewsWeekly: from the
Illinois Board of Higher Education, page 57) ~ (Newsalert)

[*] “I’m Thinking of Suicide Because of My Student Loans. – John”
(GetOutOfDebt.org, undated news story) “Dear Steve, My student loans are almost
$42,000 dollars. I pay almost $260 dollars per month and all but $12 dollars is
interest and the principal continues to go higher…I frequently think about
suicide; thinking about my son is the only thing that has so far kept me from
committing suicide. John” [* "A Pastor's Student Loan Debt" (NPR, by Libby
Lewis) July 14, 2007 “Dan Lozer's tiny paycheck means he'll be paying off those
loans until 2029...Lozer said there was a time when he thought about suicide.”

For a religious view on finance & debt, accepted by many pastors, such as
Lozer, see note "36" in Watts' position paper, regarding various Bible standards
on interest fee charges and loan forgiveness options.

[*] “Company’s march toward student loan monopoly scary” (The News Tribune,
By ALAN COLLINGE) 06/19/07 “In Boston; a medical student can’t get licensed
because he can’t pay $52,000 on what began as a $3,000 debt. A suicide in
Oregon. A suicide in Maryland. People who have fled the country due to the
explosion of their student loan debt. The list goes on and on.”

The preceding press release was written by Gordon Wayne Watts of Lakeland,
Florida, who received a Bachelor’s degree from The Florida State University with
a double major in Biological and Chemical Sciences with honors and was the
valedictorian from United Electronics Institute. Watts, a non-lawyer, is best
known for his lawsuit on behalf of Terri Schiavo[1], which lost 4-3 in the
Florida Supreme Court, arguably doing better than even then Governor Jeb Bush’s
similar suit[2] (lost: 7-0) or Terri Schiavo’s own family’s federal case[3]
(lost: 2-1). Mr. Watts, who ran unsuccessfully for Dist. 64 Fla. House of
Representatives, is a part-time political activist while he searches for a
full-time job in his field.

Sources:
1. In Re: GORDON WAYNE WATTS (as next friend of THERESA MARIE
“TERRI” SCHIAVO), No. SC03-2420 (Fla. Feb.23, 2003), denied 4-3 on rehearing.

2. In Re: JEB BUSH, GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA, ET AL. v. MICHAEL SCHIAVO, GUARDIAN:
THERESA SCHIAVO, No. SC04-925 (Fla. Oct.21, 2004), denied 7-0 on rehearing.

3. Schiavo ex rel. Schindler v. Schiavo ex rel. Schiavo, 403 F.3d 1223, 2005
WL 648897 (11th Cir. Mar.23, 2005), denied 2-1 on appeal.

Contact: Gordon Wayne Watts
Editor-in-Chief, The Register

821 Alicia Road
Lakeland, FL
33801

Gww1210(at)aol(dot)com or:
Gww12102002(at)yahoo(dot)com
(863)
688-9880 (main) ---

GordonWatts.com
GordonWayneWatts.com

###

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Gordon Watts
THE REGISTER, NON-PROFIT
WEBPAPER
(863) 688-9880
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