Student Loan Crisis Is A Crisis

The student loan crisis is worse than ever and more people are leaving college thousands of dollars in debt before they even have a job or any type of income. With the rising cost of college and living expenses, people are taking out more student loans for higher amounts, leaving more people in an undesirable amount of debt and essentially trapping them. “There's currently no way to get rid of federal student debt other than paying off the loans.” (Quinton, Sophie, why you might be paying student loans till you retire). Because student loans are not like other loans they will not disappear if you declare bankruptcy, so the borrower is forced to pay them back even if it means you cannot afford to do so. There is not just one thing that is causing the student loan crisis this is a combination of many things that are being overlooked or ignored. We need to look into the reasoning to determine why this is happening, what problems it is causing and then come up with a solution that can stop the problem. Student loans are a great tool to use if you need financial help for college, but one must be careful and consider the consequences and understand what a student loan is and how to deal with them to make a responsible decision about their financial future.

A problem with student loan debt is that students gain more debt because they are not able to pay off the student loans within the given time which also causes them to put certain life decisions on hold. According to Sophie Quinton debt is a problem for the recent college graduates because “There’s currently no way to get rid of federal student debt other than paying off the loans. while some borrowers are paying off their debts just fine, overall they are adding debt faster than they are shedding it”(Quinton). According to Jamaal Abdul-Alim stated that a “survey - titled Student Loan Debt: Who’s Paying the Price?- revealed a number of troubling statistics about the practical ways that student loans are impacting college graduates in their everyday lives. For instance the survey found that: 49

Problems in the student loan market are not just harming students but are also exacerbating problems with the United States’ recovery from the Great Recession. New York Federal Reserve Bank data has found that outstanding student debt topped $1 trillion in the third quarter of 2013, and the share of loans delinquent 90 days or more rose to 11.8 percent. Furthermore, the share of 25-year-old Americans with student debt increased to 43 percent in 2012 from 25 percent in 2003, while the average loan balance rose 91 percent, to $20,326 from $10,649 (Gage and Lorin). More than 40 million Americans are in student loan debt and because of this, more than 40 million Americans are not able to stimulate the economy as they are not able to buy houses or cars, or start businesses or families (Applebaum). In Wisconsin alone, student loan debt has resulted in a loss of over $200 million annually from new car purchases, while also resulting in middle class households with student loan debt overwhelmingly renting homes instead of owning them (Vanegeren).

Key informant interviewee Natalia Abrams, stated that “this is a time where media and politicians are talking about student loan debt but they are only focusing on policy for the new college student, but there needs to be a policy for the 43 million existing borrowers.” There are two separate policy issues that need to be analyzed in order to address the student loan debt crisis. Research shows that there is a difference among default rates based on race and socio economic status. These differences left unchecked can wreak social and economic havoc on society. While student loan debt crisis may not be a crisis for all, the danger is the growing amount of debt that a significant fraction of borrowers are currently saddled with that is preventing

Student loans are becoming more and more of a problem for college students all across the United States. As college tuition has significantly increased over the past years, it has become extremely common for most college students to finance their education through student loans. Tuition has become so expensive that it is almost unheard of for a student to pay for their tuition out of pocket or by working for their education part time. As the result of tuition being so high, many students often graduate from college with thousands of dollars in debt waiting to be paid off. More often than not, people do not think of the consequences of taking out so many student loans, they usually have some reasoning behind why they take out as many student loans as they do and in return do not think about the after-effects and consequences of borrowing that much money. Most people do not worry about their loans because they expect to make a decent salary after graduating and believe that they will be able to pay back all of the loans later on in life. Due to the extreme cost of college and students obligation to take out student loans, college campuses should require students to become aware of the dangers of pulling more student loans than necessary.

In the U.S. students are encouraged to earn a college degree, but the cost of an education turns many away. “Driven by the allure of a decent salary with a college degree, Americans borrowed to go to school. Outstanding student debt doubled from 2005 to 2010, and by 2012 total student debt in the U.S. economy surpassed $1 trillion” (Mian, Sufi 167). There are plenty of opportunities to obtain funds for college, including one of the most common, student loans. A student loan is defined as “a common way to fund education, specifically college and graduate school, and they provide educational opportunities that you otherwise may not be able to afford” (Barr). Student debt is at an all-time high in America. Over half of all lower income

As many would be led to believe, student debt affects the vast majority of young people in this country. According to Daniels, seventy percent of students who have recently graduated are now considered to be under the category of borrowers (2015). In relation to the population, that is a total of forty million people (Daniels, 2015). Unfortunately, many of these students are reaching the point of possibly defaulting on the loans they have accumulated (Daniels, 2015). Although students are now being educated about being very careful when taking out loans, many do not have a choice. Student debt seems like a nonstop revolving door for us young people. The sum of the student loan debt that the population of forty million Americans has is a total of $1.2 trillion in college debt (Student-loan debacle, 2014).

“The United States has created a new generation of people that have more student loan debt than at any other time in our history” (Murphey). A vast majority of students are graduating with debt. On average, students are carrying loan amounts big enough to buy a nice car or cover the down payment on a house, but instead of making those investments, or starting a family or a business, they’re struggling to keep up with student loan payments (O’Malley). Student loan debt is a major problem. Student loan debt exceeded credit card debt in 2010, auto loans in 2011, and it passed the $1 trillion mark in 2012.

An estimated 20 million Americans attend college each year, and 60% of those students borrow annually to pay for it (qtd. in asa.org, “Student Loan Debt Statistics”). Moreover, citizens continuing to pay off debt after schooling brings the overall number of student-loan-borrowers to about 40 million- with a collective 1 trillion dollars in debt (McCarthy, “10 Fun Facts About the Student Debt Crisis); a fourth of these borrowers owe over $28,000, a tenth owe over $54,000, 3.1% owe more than $100,000, “and 0.45 percent of borrowers, or 167,000 people, owe more than $200,000” (Haughwout, “Grading Student Loans”). While some view this predicament as the result of laziness or carelessness, the bulk of this substantial group are not at fault.

The United States student loan debt crisis is worsening by the minute. According to analysts about two students who had taken out a sum of student loan debt default every minute. This default rate is setting the United States up for a major financial crisis. What is driving the nation deeper into the red is the greed of the loan servicers. Although not illegal, loan servicers direct students who appear as a troubled applicant to sketchy and costly loan repayment plans. A branch of what is now known as Sallie Mae is responsible for a majority of the problem, because their sister company Navient “services roughly $300 billion in loans taken out by 12 million borrowers.” (1)

According to “ Student Loans: Is There Really A Crisis? ” student debt is causing real hardship for some Americans.The article states that the public interest is to help subsidize students to attend college. But the real question is where is the public interest in subsidizing. The article also stated that to double the interest rate for federal student loans is less calamitous than it sounds. But the rate increase would only affect new loans. What this particular article lack is why there is nothing stopping student loans from having student in a crisis. What ways can they minimize students being in a crisis in the United States. What's missing is ways to help students not be in debt.

on student loan debt not being as much of an issue to the United States economy as many

A crisis looms in the American economy tethering directly to the accretion of student loan debt now surpassing one trillion dollars and worsening. In fact, bankruptcy attorneys nationwide have begun to witness potential clients with burdening student loan debt in recent years as never before.

In the United States today, the number of students graduating college with student loan debt is quite astonishing. In the article titled, “How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt Crisis Is Crippling Students, Parents And The Economy”, we will examine and break down the student loan debt crisis by the numbers. Today, almost two-third’s of students graduating college are graduating with an average of $26,000 in debt. For most students, $26,000 is a lot of money when the average annual income for a first year graduate is only in the mid $40,000 a year range. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loan debt has reached a new milestone, crossing the $1.2 trillion mark (Denhart, 2013, Introduction, par. 2). With student loan debt levels

Student debt has been an increasingly more threatening crisis in the American economy. It exceeded $1 trillion dollars in 2012 and is not showing any signs of slowing down (Kantrowitz). Many students find themselves struggling to pay off student debts as they finish schools with tens of thousands of debt. For many students, debt and loans are their only options to pursue higher education, and because of this, they are often victims and targets exploited with incredibly high interest rates. In order to protect students, the American government passed the Student Loan Certainty Act in an effort to limit the interest rate on student debt and give students a alleviate some of the debt students have in their pursuit for higher education.