For Social Worker No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
Cammie McDaniels. Photo courtesy of WSBT.com.
Cheers to Chicago Tribune columnist Jon Yates for helping out a social worker who ran into trouble when he tried to help a friend.
Chicago Public Schools social worker Cammie McDaniel, MSW, had always urged friends to pursue a higher education, according to this article on WSBT.com.
So when a friend with poor credit needed a $6,000 student loan McDaniel agreed to co-sign. However, when that friend refused to pay the bill McDaniels ending up being held liable for the loan and dogged by collectors.
To save his credit McDaniels ended up paying Sallie Mae $9,700, which included late fees and interest. However, bill collectors kept contacting him, saying the bill had not been paid.
Jon Yates, who runs the “Problem Solver” column that appears on WSTB.com, contacted Sallie Mae on McDaniels’ behalf. The company said it was a “manual, human error” and the collection agency would stop hounding McDaniels.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted,” McDaniels said.
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The lesson learned here is NEVER to cosign anyone’s student loans. This guy really must have had a bleeding heart to do such a thing. Or a case of extreme naivety and optimism. It’s hard enough repaying one person’s student loans, especially with our social worker salaries.
In all seriousness, how are we going to recruit more social workers into our field when people know that we’ll be slaves to our student loans for life? It doesn’t help that our wages remain stagnant as tuition keeps skyrocketing. Sorry, but I’m really bitter about this.