A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis is sounding off about “sociology” degrees as bad value in his latest denunciation of President Joe Biden’s restructuring of student loan debt obligations.
“He doesn’t have the authority to do. It is to basically say, you know, ‘If you’re a truck driver, you didn’t go to college, you don’t have student debt. Sorry, you’re going to have to pony up to pay the student loans of somebody, you know, who maybe got a degree in sociology or something and is not gainfully employed and can’t afford the loans.’ That is not fair,” DeSantis said in St. Petersburg.
The Governor also denounced a more familiar fictional trope that he likes to invoke — so-called “zombie studies” — in his extended denunciation of the President’s purported lack of “constitutional authority” to “unilaterally cancel loans.”
According to ZipRecruiter, it is possible for Floridians to make a living wage of close to $50,000 per year with a sociology degree, though that number is roughly $20,000 below the national average, in yet another illustration of depressed wages in an increasingly expensive state.
DeSantis, who advanced a student loan proposal during his failed presidential campaign, hit familiar themes Wednesday, blaming “free money” from the federal student loan program for the “administrative bloat” at colleges.
He has eliminated some parts of that proposal from his remarks on the subject, including a suggestion that student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy proceedings as was the case before 2003, when then-U.S. Sen. Biden helped to foreclose that option for students struggling with high debt burdens and interest rates.
Unlike consumer debt, student loan borrowers have faced what amounts to a lifetime sentence with these burdens until recent reforms under Biden’s presidential administration, which continue to be fought by Republicans.
Among those Republicans fighting the Biden administration: Attorney General Ashley Moody, who joined the Missouri v. Biden lawsuit this week objecting to the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, enacted by U.S. Department of Education rulemaking.
The SAVE plan “is the newest income-driven repayment (IDR) plan,” and it offers benefits for borrowers that include the elimination of “100% of remaining monthly interest for both subsidized and unsubsidized loans,” the Department notes.
These interest burdens can vary for borrowers based on when they happened to go to school, as that determines interest rates, with an arguably disproportionate burden on those who went to school before the low-interest rate period after the 2008 economic crash and before pandemic spending from Donald Trump and Biden.
“We will fight in court to make sure that hard-working Americans, who are struggling to buy groceries thanks to Biden, are not on the hook for other people’s debt,” the second-term Republican from Plant City pledged.
45 comments
Ocean Joe
April 10, 2024 at 11:54 am
But a history degree is OK.
Hung Wiil
April 10, 2024 at 6:34 pm
OJ,
Based upon your comments, it is self-evident that you have never taken a graduate-level history or sociology class.
The academic discipline of sociology is an absolute joke, as it is based on the flimsiest qualitative research, replete with personal opinions and desired policy goals. It is like NPR, a front for the lazy left. This course should be removed from the state college and university system.
Most people who earn a degree in sociology are soon found manning the drive-thru at Arby’s. A Janocha shake with your curly fries? A history degree, OJ, has intrinsic value.
Google it, tool.
Michael K
April 10, 2024 at 8:15 pm
Rhonda hates sociology because it is a useful tool for understanding patterns and trends – and, using research and data, may reveal “inconvenient truths” about society, populations, and public policy.
Rick Whitaker
April 10, 2024 at 9:53 pm
HUNG, i have the type of degree you are referring to, but ended up in the business world, as a business owner for over 30 years. there goes the validity of your rant. it’s not the degree a man has, it’s how someone gains from it that matters. desantis didn’t gain much from his degrees. im’ talking about integrity and magnanimity.
MH/Duuuval
April 11, 2024 at 10:08 am
The best Florida DOC secretary in modern times, the late Harry K. Singletary, Jr., had a BA and MA in sociology. He ran the department for 8 years without a scandal, nor was any scandal found subsequently. (His only blemish, as far as I know, was an embarrassing escape in southwest Florida by a number of inmates who were eventually captured.)
My take: criminal justice and entitlement program will always need educated workers.
MH/Duuuval
April 11, 2024 at 8:17 pm
I can’t pay the rent or buy groceries with intrinsic value.
Hung Wiil
April 11, 2024 at 11:31 pm
You’re a renter. Enough said.
MH/Duuuval
April 12, 2024 at 10:09 am
Actually, Peachy, I am renting from the mortgage company — not that this alters my ability to cast a vote — renter or owner.
Please come out of the 19th century — there is no property qualification to vote today. And this is primarily because in the South backwoods types got tired of plantation types controlling everything.l
Mike
April 10, 2024 at 7:40 pm
And he has no problem paying his tuition. The system works. If desantis had a loan, now as governor of a state, Would it not INFURIATE you if you found out that you’re on the hook for his loan?
MH/Duuuval
April 10, 2024 at 8:03 pm
The guy has been out of school a quarter-century and he hasn’t paid for the money he borrowed to go to Harvard and Yale?
LT
April 10, 2024 at 11:59 am
Wouldn’t his history degree be in the same school as sociology? AKA Arts and Sciences or Liberal Arts? I mean he’s sucking off the teat of the Florida taxpayer as governor. Gimme a break.
Impeach Biden
April 10, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Umm he went to Yale for undergrad and received a law degree at Harvard. He was also a commissioned officer I. The United States Navy. See the difference? If he has student debt, I bet it is paid off or he is paying it off.
LT
April 10, 2024 at 12:20 pm
Went back for a law degree, after he realized he couldn’t pay student loans being a history teacher. Joined the Navy when he realized the Navy would pay off his student loans. Uh huh. Some difference.
Impeach Biden
April 10, 2024 at 12:51 pm
How about this LT? If these crybaby kids want honest taxpayers to assume their student debt, how about we have them do some time in the military to work off that debt. There are no free rides.
Rick Whitaker
April 10, 2024 at 1:16 pm
IM,you do realize you are taking up for a crook and loser don’t you? desantis is a punk’s punk.
Impeach Biden
April 10, 2024 at 8:48 pm
You think everyone out there is a crook / loser if their name isn’t Bernie Sanders, AOC, Elizabeth “squaw” Warren, Hank “Guam will tip” Johnson, etc. etc. There’s just a few “losers” from the other side for you.
Rick Whitaker
April 10, 2024 at 9:29 pm
IM, not everyone, just desantis.
MH/Duuuval
April 10, 2024 at 8:11 pm
As of April 2023 Ron hadn’t paid up, according to the highly successful New York Post. Here’s the headline:
New millionaire Ron DeSantis still owes student loans
Presumably the $1.25M advance Dee got for a book he is supposed to write can cover it. Check’s probably in the mail, paid in full.
MH/Duuuval
April 10, 2024 at 8:15 pm
One year of teaching history was all he could take — even surrounded by comely high school females.
DEBRA
April 13, 2024 at 12:46 am
He got an undergrad from Yale and majored in history. How is that useful when you can’t teach history? Civil War?
Rick Whitaker
April 10, 2024 at 12:14 pm
LT, desantis has chosen to throw rocks because he doesn’t have anything sensible to say.
Impeach Biden
April 10, 2024 at 12:48 pm
There is nothing sensible in your twisted world from left of Bernie Sanders political position to calling Reagan the worst President in your lifetime. I hope the state of Tennessee took your drivers license away because you aren’t fit to operate a vehicle.
Rick Whitaker
April 10, 2024 at 1:24 pm
im, LET ME SAY IT AGAIN, RONALD RAYGUN WAS THE WORST PRES BEFORE TRUMP. look dude, just because you are too whatever to see raygun for what he was, doesn’t mean that the rest of us awake people see him like a cultist would. you dude, are a 24 carat redneck fool.
Mike
April 10, 2024 at 7:43 pm
I don’t see your logic. So it’s ok for desantis to live off the government and it’s also ok for a totally different portion of the government to sign you personally up to pay desantis loans? Stop all these crooks.
Rick Whitaker
April 10, 2024 at 12:10 pm
IM, is that loud sound the sound of you kissing the ass of an elitist like desantis, what did you say, i can’t hear you, the ass smooching sound is too loud.
Impeach Biden
April 10, 2024 at 12:40 pm
No one is gonna kiss your angry, old, senile ass except Joe because he is as senile as you.
Rick Whitaker
April 10, 2024 at 1:18 pm
IM, yeah……………………….right???
ScienceBLVR
April 10, 2024 at 12:31 pm
I wonder where DeSantis thinks the 10k plus social workers(most common career for Soc majors) that work in his state get their degrees from? See below
According to Council on Social Work Education, there are about 27 accredited bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that Florida is the 5th–highest state in terms of the number of healthcare social workers employed in the state with 10,680 employed as of May 2022. Child, family, and school social workers earned an average annual wage of $49,910 in 2022 according to the bureau.
Bill Pollard
April 10, 2024 at 1:06 pm
Good point. We need people educated with a variety of degrees for a society to function properly. We also need people highly trained with skills that they can learn partly in classroom settings and partly on the job. All of this education and training is ever more costly. What we do not need are more people without education or skills who end up costing the taxpayers even more money by living on public expense.
TJC
April 10, 2024 at 1:14 pm
Who’s crying now? DeSantis is trying to appeal to Trump’s cherished “undereducated” by bashing college students and making them sound like they are taking money out of others’ pockets. Typical authoritarian trope, tell the people who feel unappreciated (it’s okay for Trump followers to have feelings, not anyone else, though) that they are indeed unappreciated and also being victimized by those with college degrees. Next he’ll be calling them parasites.
He’s running for the 2028 Trump-like ticket.
Impeach Biden
April 10, 2024 at 1:29 pm
Uh no. These kids signed a contract. They agreed to pay back their loans, just like we all did. Just like loans for homes, cars, etc. Now if you were a slum lord like Tennessee Rick you would immediately begin eviction proceedings if the tenants stopped paying their rent. There are no free rides, even for you Bernie Sanders zombies.
TJC
April 10, 2024 at 2:34 pm
What about businesses that declare bankruptcy and walk away from all their debts? California and Florida lead the nation in business bankruptcy filings. Nice, sweet ride for big businesses to put debt on hold, renegotiate debt or dump it altogether, even set up new loans at better rates—anything to survive.
Republicans have fought every effort to treat individuals — like students — the same way. For some people a deal is a deal, but for businesses, not so much. Where do you think all that business debt gets dumped? On consumers, on the employees who lose their pensions, and yes, the federal government pitches in to help.
Impeach Biden
April 10, 2024 at 2:43 pm
What about? What about? This discussion is on student debt. Stay on subject. 😜
TJC
April 11, 2024 at 11:58 am
The discussion, as you steered it, is about “These kids signed a contract.” Your words.
My point is, yes, they signed a contract, but so did every business that floated a loan from a bank, borrowed from investors, signed contracts with employees, etc. before declaring bankruptcy.
Explain why the treatment of businesses who “signed a contract” is different from the students who signed contracts. What about it? What about that.
MH/Duuuval
April 11, 2024 at 10:11 am
Who has more bankruptcies than Trump?
TJC
April 11, 2024 at 4:36 pm
Good point.
MH/Duuuval
April 10, 2024 at 8:13 pm
Dee on CNN in May 2023
“If somebody defaults, the university should pick it up,” he said. “If they were on the hook for it, they would make sure the curriculum was designed to produce people that can be very productive. You’d have a heck of a lot less gender studies going on.”
PeterH
April 10, 2024 at 1:22 pm
Understand that DeSantis’s statement is nothing more than a desperate attempt to remain relevant on the national stage. Fox and Republicans need a diversion from the Trump trials and the abortion political quagmire they’ve allowed to simmer to a boil.
MH/Duuuval
April 10, 2024 at 2:30 pm
Or, you could do as Sen. Dennis Baxley did and get your sociology degree, then go into the mortuary business (a family business?), make a lot of money, and run for high office. (Baxley was the first politico in this state to make the case for downgrading sociology degree.)
Tom
April 10, 2024 at 3:14 pm
Not sure why he thinks it’s a waste – if I was looking at a degree and did this search, I’d see plenty of possibilities. He’s a crap lawyer based on some of the policy decisions he makes but he still seems to have opinions about everyone else’s choices.
What job can I do with a sociology degree?
Which employers will value my degree?
Police and probation services.
Local and central government.
Social and market research.
Charitable, counselling and voluntary organisations.
Public relations, journalism and communications.
Media and marketing.
Law firms and the criminal justice system.
Teaching and education.
TJC
April 11, 2024 at 4:44 pm
In his longstanding effort to reshape education into a political expression of his will, DeSantis had to find something to target at the college level. Sociology, while having nothing to do with socialism, still sounds an awful lot like socialism to the core Trump supporters that he still is trying to win over. He makes no effort to offer the information you have regarding the value of a sociology degree because it does not fit his narrative and it willfully ignores the kinds of institutions he abhors: teaching and education, media and marketing, local government, probation services — none of which conjure up the tough guy image he tries so pitifully to project.
Dont Say FLA
April 10, 2024 at 4:12 pm
I can see where Rhonda is concerned what with his getting his worthless History and Law degrees where he (evidently) didn’t learn anything at all and then couldn’t find a job anywhere and had to join the Navy
But that’s just you, Rhonda. Kids getting sociology degrees can get jobs. It’s just you, Rhonda. Only you.
Michael K
April 10, 2024 at 9:08 pm
The Harvard/Yale elitist DeSantis throwing more red meat at the ill-informed MAGA base as he tries to burnish his anti-intellectual, redneck credibility. Come to think of it, when does Rhonda do anything “cultural” besides deepthroating corn dogs in Iowa?
Kenneth L Gallaher
April 11, 2024 at 11:33 am
He could use some sociology. Might push him a bit towards being human.
woke
April 11, 2024 at 1:51 pm
Rona thinks it’s OK to destroy New College. Rona has no problem paying to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. Rona is good to spend money on lawyers to fight to defend unconstitutional laws he signed. But help students with loan debt, he is against that. Go figure
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