Taking a Look at Educational Debt

The main problems with student debt are the high monthly payments, high interest, short grace period, and repayment programs that does not apply to everyone. Majority of students can’t pay back loans they have borrowed because they aren’t given enough time to pay them off. Students have at least six months to pay off their debt before they get an increase in interest. Over 75% percent of students have to get loans to pay for their first year of college and more (Quadlin). Debt is something we all have to deal with even parents suffer from them as well.

An education is one of the most important tools a person can acquire. It gives them the skills and abilities to obtain a job, earn a wage, and then use that wage to better their lives and the lives of their loved ones. However, due to the seemingly exponential increase in the costs of obtaining a college degree, students are either being driven away entirely from earning a degree or taking out student loans which cripple their financial prospects well after graduation. Without question, the increasing national student loan debt is one of the most pressing economic issues the United States is dealing with, as students who are debt ridden are not able to consume and invest in the economy. Therefore, many politicians and students are calling

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).

“Those who earned a bachelors degree in 2011 graduated with an average of $26,000 in debt” (Economist). This is an alarming statistic for me, considering that “the debt per student has doubled in the past 15 years,” so that figure doesn’t seem to be going down any time soon (Economist). I believe that this student loan debt crisis is something that should be resolved with the utmost time-efficacy in Washington. Increasing Pell grants is a great start, but more needs to be done to truly fix the crisis.

Higher education comes at an extremely high price. The excitement of graduating college to land the six-figure job is soon destroyed when students realize how much debt they’ve obtained. Dreams of owning a house and starting a family are shattered by the money borrowed to provide and guarantee students an excellent future. Instead of waiting to land the ideal job, students work multiple jobs to help ends meet. Struggling to stay afloat, millions of students become victims of one of the major economic crisis in the United States today; Student debt.

However, college education not only delivers a degree or diploma, but also intellectual growth and a more promising future of financial stability and happiness. With things like fees, financial aid, housing and transportation, it is understandable for any individual to be frustrated with the many obstacles college may throw. However, college is only as difficult as one may approach it. It is an overwhelming statistic that “student debt has increased significantly,” within the past few decades (Leonhardt). With plenty of opportunities for financial aid, students can ease the tension of their wallets by taking advantage of the convenience scholarships provide.

As decades pass by, obtaining a college degree seems more necessary to get a decent job after graduating. Therefore, high school students feel the pressure to get into a good university and to get the highest degree possible, even when they have no plan on how to pay for it. Financial aid has not kept up with growing tuition prices, and taking out student loans seems almost impossible to avoid. According to research, “About 40 million Americans hold student loans and about 70% of bachelor’s degree recipients graduate with debt.” (Market Watch) The U.S currently has a total of 1.3 trillion dollars of outstanding debt. There is a ton of controversy on how to solve this issue, but there are progressive solutions schools and college kids need

Student debt is a major issue, especially in the United States. It often impacts on a student education. Mostly, students from middle class family suffer from it. In the United States, the cost of tuition fee is very high, which is the most common reason behind student debt. Though there are various scholarships and federal aids for the students to help with tuition fees, most of the universities and colleges don’t cover full amount of the tuition fees, which leads the students to take loans, which causes student debt. However, there are also difference between universities and the loan system. Federal colleges and universities often have affordable tuition fees, which often don’t require students to take loans. However, tuition fees of private colleges and universities are extremely high, which don’t only require students take loans, but sometimes, the loans are even sufficient to cover all the tuition fees. Moving to the loan system, there are two types of loans; loans with interest and loans without interest. Loans without interest are usually better and affordable to take, but loans with interest are very expensive and not affordable to pay at all. And often, loan with interest is what leads to the student debt. After all, high tuition fees and loans with high interest are the reasons behind student debt and the problems with student debt are enormous. More or less, every one of the problems with student debt impacts on student education, which then impacts on a student

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

Beginning in the 1960’s the distribution of federal and non-profit funds have given students all over the United States the opportunity to pursue post-secondary educations. Although this method has given students the ability to go to college financially, the majority of the students are not able to pay the money back when finished causing debt. Currently students in the United States owe more than $1 trillion dollars worth of federal and private student loans. Surprisingly this number has surpassed the country’s credit card debt which is $852 billion dollars. This years presidential election has many serious & interesting topics being discussed such as gay marriage & immigration, but the topic of student loan

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.

There is a vast assortment of literature on student loans and debt that particularly emphasize the situations, especially on the young students. The author of “Generation Debt”, Anya Kamenetz did a literature work on the debt problems of students between ages of 18-34 year. This author explains how student loans have been and will continue to negatively affect student’s financial and educational choices because the cost of attending college has been increasing.

The first of Ladson- Billings’ reasons for addressing the education debt is its impact on our present education progress. The possibility of the US losing its position as a top world leader in the near future exists solely because of the poor educational system. Unfortunately, no matter how much is done to repair the damages within schooling, nothing will change until the education debt is managed. She argues that although “relational trust” is a “…key component of school reform” (Ladson-Billings, 2006, p.9), the greatness of the debt wears away at that very trust and signifies how much teachers pay yearly as opposed to investing in helping their students.

If an aspiring college student doesn’t have the necessary funds to attend school, there is another option they could use to pay for school. Student loans are a popular choice so that the student can pay for school. While this may seem like a great option for affording school, it can be a devil in disguise for many. The New York Times reports that Americans owe over 1.4 trillion dollars in student loan debt (Kelly 1). This happens when a college student takes loans with the belief that the college degree they get will help them achieve a higher salary which will in turn will help them pay off their debt. This often isn’t the case. A student takes the loans and attends school, but does not receive the salary that they were hoping to acquire from attending school. A standard payment plan for students is to pay off their debt in ten years, but according to a study conducted by US News, the average bachelor degree holder takes twenty-one years to pay off (Bidwell 1). This is a common occurrence as well, a report conducted by The Institute for Collee Access and Success shows that in 2012, seventy-one percent of college graduates had student debt (Serrato 1). The current system that the government offers to help those struggling to afford a secondary education is a flawed program that needs restructuring.