Students in Debt – by Graham Corrigan
Password: debt. Student debt continues to spiral upwards in America. With the help of some real-life students in debt, this animated explainer gives a quick recap of where we’ve been, how we got here, and (hopefully) where we’re headed.
And it’s not getting any better. Federal loan rates are on the rise again, and tuition rates continue to spiral upwards.
A bachelor’s degree has never been this expensive or this popular. In 1980, room, board and tuition would top out under 10,000 of today’s dollars. But in the last 30 years, college tuition has increased 1,120 percent.
OBAMA: We can’t stand by when millions of young people are saddled with debt just as you’re starting off. And higher education cannot be a luxury reserved for a privileged few.
VO: States are the easy scapegoat. From 2008-2012, states cut funding to higher education by $2,394 per student. That’s a lot of ramen. But there’s some disagreement. Here’s Rachel Fishman, a policy analyst at NewAmerica.org.
RACHEL FISHMAN: Institutions turn around and point a lot of blame at states, but it’s more complicated than that. Jobs have really changed in the past few years in that you need some post-secondary training of some sort.
VO: College doesn’t necessarily mean a leafy campus anymore. It doesn’t have to be synonymous with debt either. There are a lot of degrees out there, not all of which require buying the equivalent of a luxury sports car every year for four years. We have options now. It’s time to start using them.
America’s student loan debt has breached $1 trillion and just overtook credit card debt for the first time ever. Yet most students preparing for post-secondary education have been undeterred—total college enrollment in America continues to climb. 18 million U.S. students came to college last year. Over 70% of undergraduate students graduate with debt, and on average, those who took out loans left school with $29,400. That’s the highest average ever. Right now, every graduating class is set to break that record set the previous yearWe are an isolated incident. America’s universities cost far more than schools in Europe and Asia, and it’s leading some experts like Rachel Fishman of NewAmerica.org to question whether a four-year bachelor’s degree is as essential as we’ve been led to believe. Colleges defend their ongoing tuition hikes by citing a lack of state funding (down more than $2,000 a student in the last 5 years), but the cost of college has been outpacing inflation for a long time. Average tuition has grown 1,120% in the last 30 years.As for alternatives, Fishman points to rising attendance rates at technical and two-year programs as an indication that America is getting wise to their education needs. Free and online course continue to grow in number, and public universities have renewed a push to return higher education to an affordable place.
