Pew Research Center
American Households with Student Loan Debt on The Rise.
How Important are student loans in this campaign?
President Obama has made government loan programs for students a key part of his re-election campaign. The first lady frequently mentions the burden of student loans at her campaign appearances, saying her and the president just recently paid off their own loans. Mitt Romney has even been asked about paying for college at campaign events. (He once told a questioner to "shop around" for the cheapest college and another time said people should borrow money from their parents.)
Pew Research Center has once again put a very serious issue into perspective. Pew headlines their newest study this way: "A Record One-In-Five Households Now Owe Student Loan Debt, Burden Greatest on Young, Poor."
Pew Reports:
About one out of five (19%) of the nation’s households owed student debt in 2010, more than double the share two decades earlier1 and a significant rise from the 15% that owed such debt in 2007, just prior to the onset of the Great Recession
The burden from those student loans has never been greater:
The Pew Research analysis also finds that a record 40% of all households headed by someone younger than age 35 owe such debt, by far the highest share among any age group.
It also finds that, whether computed as a share of household income or assets, the relative burden of student loan debt is greatest for households in the bottom fifth of the income spectrum, even though members of such households are less likely than those in other groups to attend college in the first place.2
Since 2007 the incidence of student debt has increased in nearly every demographic and economic category, as has the size of that debt.
Since 2007 the incidence of student debt has increased in nearly every demographic and economic category, as has the size of that debt.
Will the student loans issue impact your vote in November?
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We have developed a higher education system in this country that is more and more expensive, and is based on luring students into the education factories that are turning out young adults with often worthless two and four year degrees that are loaded with social science and humanities studies that are nearly worthless in the market place, unless one is content on becoming a generation Xer with book store, mall retail, and coffee barrista jobs, and for those low paying entries to the job market, they have saddled them with debt. It's far time that we turned to our industrial and commercial base left in this country for guidance on how to best prepare students for real jobs, and if many have to be steered to vocational education and a combination of internship/apprenticeships and structured learning opportunities at reasonable costs and some work credit and recompense along the way, so be it.
BTW, as Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney instituted a program of rewarding the top 25% of all high school graduates in the state with free tuition and fees at all State Supported higher education institutions, supported out of general revenues. That is a far better model than the greatly expanded government operated Student Loan Program, that this Administration promoted, and now is in the position of beginning to talk about waiving the repayment of those loans, while Obama uses Executive Orders to reduce the amount of principal payback and expand the payback period for all those students that can't find jobs in his failed policies dormant economy (down to an estimated very anemic 1.3 GDP growth rate in this current quarter ending September 30th. by figures released just yesterday). Seems to me that is all a much better way to go rather than procucing a steady stream of more debt laden gaduated students with little jobs skills that are back living in their childhood bedrooms, and staring up in bored fashion at their fading Obama Posters of 2008 as they wonder how and when they will be able to get going with their adult lives; due credit to Paul Ryan for the latter lament, of course!
Written as a former techer in Vocational School systems, and a professional Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist with both real world industrial experience and commercial institution experience and BA (Magna Cum Laude) and Master of Arts in Teaching background with both Secondary Level certification and Vocational Education Experience from two New England State Universities (University of Connecticut and Universtity of Massachusetts) who worked his way through his higher education attainment and took on no debt at all.
Amazing, all that education and an individual who is still unable to think or spell...
If you doubt me, check out Grandpa's defense of Mitt's suggestion that jet aircraft have windows that can be opened for emergency ventilation during flight...
@Keith Longey: Congratulations on your education attainment; however, judging by your list of accomplishments, it appears as if you graduated before the year 2000.
Are you aware that college tuition has doubled since 2000? By comparison, health care cost, something everyone seems to be concerned about, increased 53% in that same time period.
I agree that higher education has been much pumped up as the answer to everyone's problems these days, with too little thought and planning going into preparing for holding an actual job that pays a living wage. Add that to the massive unemployment that occurred during the Great Recession, and you have a number of people taking out student loans and going back to school out of desperation and the mistaken idea that piece of paper will solve all their problems.
This is not to say that an education is worthless or not desirable! What I am saying is that this horrible economy contributes much to the high rate of student loan debt as people seek a way out. It's too bad we have a congress that refuses to work together and come up with solutions/answers to growing the economy. Instead we hear "tax cuts! tax cuts!" as a miracle cure, when it's already been proven that doesn't work.
Perhaps a place to start is by cleaning out the do-nothing congress and try to put people in there that will at least attempt to do their jobs! Obstructionism for political gain, while kicking the best interests of the American people to the curb, is reprehensible and contemptible. Vote in November!
Grandpa graduated during the 1960's. When I started at the University of Utah in the early 1970's tuition was $160 a quarter for anywhere from 12 to 18 credit hours. I just Googled up tuition rates today, and a semester (several weeks longer) runs over $3,000 for resident tuition. There has been a similar escalation in textbook prices.
Wages--particularly part-time wages--have not kept pace proportionally.
This same situation is mirrored in our health care challenges. The "haves' appear to want to punish the "have nots" for failing to have been born with the appropriate silver spoon.
Graduated in the 1970s, Cab Driver. And instead of driving a hack for a living ferryhing drunks from strip clubs and bars to detox, I put my education to work for the betterment of my fellow man, as described.
But I covered your complaint of the jacked up college costs since 2000, Haddie! did I not give you the answer with my prescription of a combination of the Romney model in Massachusetts of giving free tuition and fees paid from general revenues for the top 25% academic graduates of high schools in the state at state 2 and 4 year institutions of higher education, and the expansion of Vocational curriculum at the 2 year college level, instead of weighing down the youth with high debt for relatively useless Associates and BA degress in social sciences and humanities curriculum? I mean, really!
You're so sweet Keith. Of course trying to give all that credit to Mittens is ridiculous. Education analysts in the state find the roots of Massachusetts’ strong academic showing long before Mittens came to town. In 1993, the state enacted a historic education reform bill with bipartisan support, laying the groundwork for two decades of student success.
As for Mittens "remarkable" scholarship program it handed out 18,000 scholarships for the 2011-2012 school year that ranged from $700 -$1,200 dollars a year. Wow! That's fantastic! Personally I got a full ride scholarship three decades ago but it was estimated at $50,000 dollars annually for that east coast college primary degree.
Even that high end $1,200 Mittens amount wouldn't put much of dent in that 30 year old cost there buddy!