The Issue Of The Student Loan Crisis

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.

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.

In the United States, it is generally accepted that college (or any form of higher education for that matter) is a wise investment that each and every individual should strive for. Each and every year thousands of parents open college funds and future investment plans to ensure that once their child is of age he or she can participate in quality educational programs. While college attendance rates are at a positive all-time high, right behind it follows an astounding $1.3 trillion dollars in student loan debt. Let’s face it, college is expensive, and it’s only getting worse. Could the outstanding quantity of student loan debt be the next national crisis?

Children are taught young about the American dream and how exactly to obtain it. You go to school, work hard, receive an education, graduate, procure a job, get married, purchase a house and a car, have children, and then you tell the next generation to repeat. And if a young adult should deviate from the norm and decides not to go to college, then the only employment they could ever find is at some restaurant that offers minimum wages. However, as exaggerated as that hypothetical situation is, even myths can hold a form of truth because the truth of the matter is that to ever have a chance at prospering in America. But before an individual can become a student, they first have to be able to afford the cost; and for the average American, they

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.

One reason that supports the issue of student loans being a crisis is the negative effects on

“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.

Each semester the student loan debt increases, and the scary part is that in some cases students will never be able to pay off their debt. Previously, young people would attend college to increase their chances of success in the future; however, now a days it seem like it is more of a financial burden than an investment for the future.{If something is not done to manage the increasing student loan debt, the economy as a whole will also fall into a financial crisis}. Something needs to be done about the student debt in the United States. A proposal should be done to insure that the number of students who fall under student debt have a way to come up from it without the struggle of increase interest rates and a bad credit score. Student loan debt is increasing every year, and some students don’t understand the burden that could come from borrowing money to pay for college. Student loan debt is not just harming students, but also families and the United States economy as a whole, a solution to this problem would be to cancel student loan debt.

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)

Student loan debt is becoming more and more of a problem as time goes by. Evidentially, it is only its interest fee that student loan debt is becoming known for. According to Student Loan Hero, “Student loan debt is mostly for four-year or graduate degrees (“Student Loan Debt”). Student loan debt does have effects to people’s lives, but only because they allow it to build up from not paying it. Student loan debt is not something people has to live with, but it is what they choose to live with it can be taken away nothing is permanent. Most people do not understand what Student Loan Debt really is, and the confusion it brings in people’s lives need to be distinct; this problem can simply be done by colleges protecting students from going into debt, and loan company’s should allow them eight years after graduation before putting them into debt.

With the 2016 presidential election looming in the near future, the subject of student loan debt has become a major issue on the campaign trail. The national amount of student loan debt is 1.08 trillion dollars, with 11.5% of that amount in default or in 90+ day delinquent. To put that in perspective, total consumer debt at the end of 2013 was 11.52 trillion .(Forbes, 2014) According to an in class poll, only 7 students out of 169 students were completely confident in their knowledge of student loans. However, if we had lower tuition and expenses students wouldn’t have to take a loan out in the first place.

As I’m sure you’re aware, student loan debt is one of the few areas where filing bankruptcy does not discharge the balance still owed. If one doesn’t get a job straight out of college, this debt becomes a plight on the graduate—something they wish they had never embarked on. But worst of all, this arbitrary rule makes no sense. Why can you discharge credit card debt and mortgage debt, but not student loan debt? That’s why I’m proposing that legislation be put in to place, like it was before 1976, to make student loan debt dischargeable by bankruptcy. Now, you have to keep in mind that doesn’t mean everyone who ever got a student loan will turn right back around and file for bankruptcy. This is not an easy process, simply a means to an end, for those people who feel helpless beyond

With current tuition rates at an all time high, and only continue to increase yearly, more and more students find themselves in overwhelming amounts of debt. The combination of the sky high interest rates and the inability to find a decent job make these loans near impossible to pay off. In addition, the bankruptcy laws changed so one no longer can escape from these burdensome debts. But, that’s because the banks hope these loans never get paid back. They want students’ loans to go into forbearance, as they earn more off students’ debt than the interest alone. Consequently, these students, who owe tens of thousands to even hundred of thousands of dollars, are forced into an indentured servitude in a futile attempt to pay off their debt.

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