Student Loan Debt Crisis

“Ensuring quality higher education is one of the most important things we can do for our future generations” (Ron Lewis). There are more students enrolling in post-secondary schools than ever before and consequently there are more students acquiring large debts. Once a student graduates, they enter a $33,000 or more student loan debt (Students Loan Resources). These student loans continue to place graduates into large debts, which is largely caused by their lack of knowledge of available resources, and this impacts their everyday lives and future generations.

Student debt is a topic that generates a lot of debates. From politicians to lenders to students, everyone has an opinion on the topic. With a trillion dollar national debt, it’s not surprising why the topic is such a huge issue and the solutions are even greater. The student debt is a form of debt that is owed when a student has completed college or drop out. The average interest rates for the ungraduated and graduated are 4.45% to 6% (Quadlin). To pay off all the students’ debt, it will take 10-25 years to complete it. College students will have at least six months before they have to make the first payment. Student debts can be a real problem for those who aren’t preparing for them. Student loans debt should have a longer grace period, lower monthly payments and repayment programs that apply to all because students will be able to manage and repay their debts in a timely manner.

5. Base on class statistics 83 percent out of 16 percent thinks the government should forgive student loan debt once a student has completed college and has obtain a job in the field of study.

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).

Americans have amassed more than $1.3 trillion of student loan debt (Clements). A lot of graduates are postponing life events like having kids, buying a house, to deal with the debt. About 14% of student are in default. Default means failing to make payments on your loan as scheduled. Defaults usually results in larger loan balances. With this upcoming election, it 's crucial for candidates to address student loan debt and their solutions. As a potential voter, it’s important I select the candidate that will benefits me and get rid of my loan debt.

As a mother of four, a large number of the social problems described in the text can and does directly relate to myself, as well as, my family especially regarding the matter of education. However, the problem directly affecting my family and I is the emerging social problem of rising student loan debt. Student loan debt is a problem that has begun to seep into the very mainstream of society as more and more individuals attend college, especially those with great financial needs. Personally, I am lucky to say that I do not need to borrow money to attend IRSC which has been a major blessing that has allowed me to better my education. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about my husband, who graduated from Florida State University with student loan debts around $30,000 dollars. $30,000 dollars is a relatively average amount, according the Institute for College Access and Success(TICAS) 70% of college students graduate with student loan debt, with an average of $28,950. While this amount is overall average in our society, combined with the costs of raising four children, as well as, having only one working family member who makes a relatively low salary as a school teacher, it puts significant financial strain on my family. Rising student loan debt just doesn’t affect my family and I, it affects millions of Americans, especially those who are poor and cannot afford college. Rising student loan debt is a societal problem that is hampering millions of young Americans

Here in the United States, there are many forms of consumer debt, which help contribute to the large sums of debt countless Americans find themselves faced with. Directly effecting many college students is student loan debt. Student loan debt is now the second largest form of consumer debt behind housing” declares the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Grisales). This is due to the fact that student loan debt grew 7.1% in 2014 to $1.2 trillion (Grisales). If this statistic alone is not worrisome this next one is sure to be. The amount of debt in the housing market that helped to spark the last recession was only $1.3 trillion (Grisales). Due to the increased amount of debt required by students to attend college many students are feeling the wrath. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “In 2014, 11.7 percent of females and 17.7 percent of males between the ages 25 and 34 were living with their parents” (Grisales). The fear of obtaining massive amounts of debt is driving the current generation of student’s to put off many future hopes and dreams. While causing them to move back home to save money. The current student loan crisis is crippling the economy and ruining the lives of American students.

As of 2016, the average college graduate owes thirty-seven thousand dollars in loans (Glum). As a whole, Americans owe a grand total of 1.3 trillion dollars. These are figures that grow every year, and worse, the number of people who are defaulting on their payments grows as well. The issue of the student loan crisis is serious, which is why potential solutions are now being discussed. Presidential candidates for the election of 2016 have discussed solutions that range from Hillary Clinton’s debt-free college plan to Bernie Sanders’ free tuition plan funded by taxing Wall Street, while numerous scholars and business intellectuals have suggested amending the bankruptcy code to allow for discharging student loans as a solution to the crisis (Josuweit). In this essay, I will primarily discuss the numerous but limited ways amending the bankruptcy code can alleviate the crisis, and then I will offer alternate solutions to supplement the aforementioned solution.

The problem with today’s current level of student loans is that it causes so many people that took out loans to go into debt later on in their life. Now when the former students go into debt, it creates a domino effect. The students going into debt means that the government will be able to get their money paid back to them which causes the country to be buried in an even deeper hole of debt. The nation is currently over 20 trillion dollars in debt and student loan debt is more than 1.5 trillion dollars as well according to the United States Debt Clock as of November 2017. The issue of student loan debt needs to be addressed sooner rather than later to help the country gradually come out of debt. A start to help reduce the amount of debt in

Individuals dealing with student debt "are postponing marriage, childbearing and home purchases, and pretty evidently limiting the percentage of young people who start a business or try to do something entrepreneurial," said Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University and the former Republican governor of Indiana (qtd. in Holland). Because it’s almost universally accepted that college is the key to success, students are finding themselves falling head-over-heels in large amounts of student debt justified only by these universal standards. Student debt doesn’t just burden the individuals who are liable, the sheer amount of debt has begun to rattle institutions and financial patterns that are at the core of American society (Holland).

In 1976, the average cost to attend a four year public university was $2,175; today, the average cost to attend a four year public university is $25,000 (Snyder). This means it is 1150% more expensive to go to college in The United States today than it was 30 years ago. This obviously would create a problem on how we as people are going to pay for our higher education. Today college has become almost a necessity to have a satisfactory life, and with these rising prices some individuals believe student loans are the only option. There are many reasons as to why the prices have risen, but the one undeniable fact is that this has created a problem within our country. Which, is known as the student debt crisis, and it has been on the rise the past couple years. This problem is affecting people all around the United States, and is causing multitude of problems for them all because they wanted to pursue higher education. Wanting to better your opportunities by bettering yourself is not something that needs to be punished, and sadly that is what is happening. This problem is something that needs to be fixed for the sake of Americans and our economy, but will also take time and a multitude of steps to correct.

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 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)

student debt crisis has reached an all time high with debt reaching a total of 1.3 trillion dollars across the United States.With tuition cost increasing,lack of scholarships and unpaid back loans,student debt will continue to increase even higher.The enormous amount of debt put upon each student creates the inability of those students to help the economy grow.Our economy as we know it is a loop and decreasing the student debt significantly will help the economy grow.Instead of putting that money towards the government where it won 't be used to help decrease the student debt as we can see by the total debt, it should go to the community, such as purchasing homes,cars,consumer goods,sales tax which will help improve the economy even more.Crippling student debt is stifling the growth of the U.S. economy because it inhibits graduates from being able to spend money on consumer goods and home purchases. To alleviate this, lenders should be required to forgive student loans in cases where students are unable to repay their debts,decrease a cost of attendance,and increase scholarship opportunities from universities.Doing so would benefit the growth of the economy by increasing tax revenues, unfreezing credit markets, and creating jobs.

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