Great job in bringing the issue to light. Hopefully the Washington elites will see this injustice.

Very good start on your documentary. You are missing several important scam operations of Sallie Mae and the like. The use of forbearances is a scam. A consumer who is unemployed or can never achieve the salary for their ever increasing interest rates - to pay the monthly amount set by the lender is forced to take the forbearance as the only option. This documentary needs to high light that, because there is no other option, and during unemployment and low salary while working the interest rates accrue, as the do for me at the rate of $1300/month until you are forced to run out of forbearances and default. On national television the student loan lenders are calling the forbearances and deferments consumer protection. Outrageous. Please interview ME for your video for another dimension.

Default: the Student Loan Documentary is competing to win $10,000 on Ideablob.com and we need your vote by July 31st. What would $10,000 mean to the project? Well, I'll tell you. Today, more than ever, we are confident that this film is prime for major funding. What is needed to attract the major players is a more informative 15-20 minute piece, and $10,000 helps to make this happen. This version will also strengthen our campus outreach. We cannot stress enough how important this all is.

The polls close Friday, July 31st. Voting is free.

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Here are some facts on student debt. There are many more things we could say and that’s why we need this important film:

-According to a poll by the Project on Student Debt, almost 70% of student loan borrowers feel they were very poorly informed about their loans.

-Private student loans carry variable rates of up to 25%, with no caps on fees and interests.

-Economists generally estimate that a “manageable” debt burden means payments that are 8 percent or less of monthly income…39% of student borrowers now graduate with unmanageable debt by this measure. That includes 55% African-American grads and 58% of Hispanics – Anya Kamenetz, Generation Debt.

-As The National Consumer Law Center concluded in their March 2008 report titled “Paying The Price: The High Cost of Private Student Loans and the Dangers for Student Borrowers”, there are ominous signs that “the student loan market is headed for the same fate as the subprime mortgage industry .”

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