from OurFuture.org:
America's Student Debt Now!By Armand Biroonak
June 11, 2009 - 4:42pm ET
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Attending the “Degrees of College Debt” panel at the America’s Future Now! conference last week, it was astonishing to hear dozens of graduates describe the mountains of debt they are climbing; $10,000! $50,000! $120,000 of debt! attendees shouted, when asked by the panel how much debt they had. The experiences shared in the session are not unusual. They are faced by graduates across America. Sadly, a diploma has become a financial albatross, rather than a ticket to a better financial future.
Certainly, young people today are facing an unprecedented challenge to pay for schooling — a result of skyrocketing tuition and the boom in private lending. As Tamara Draut of Demos noted, “graduates are entering today’s battered job market with an average student loan debt of close to $20,000 — but that’s only an average.” One-fourth of all students borrow $25,000 or more.
The nation’s “student debt clock” is over $580 billion and ticks higher as I write. Those billions in debt threaten the economic mobility and security of an entire generation. Carmen Berkley of the U.S. Students Association described jarringly how one in five students dropout of college — never completing a degree and leaving with the debt accumulated while in school. Add to that, the estimated 1.7 to 3.2 million qualified students that will skip college over the next decade because of the cost.
Delinquency on repayments is on the rise too, with graduates defaulting at a rate not seen in more than a decade — only accelerated by recession. That’s no shock however, when most private student loans carry a crushing interest rate of 10 to 14 percent. As Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow Push Coalition explained, attending college today is “guaranteed debt without a guaranteed job.”
Beyond jeopardizing a graduate’s future, college affordability threatens America's future. American global competitiveness has dropped. Older generations of Americans ranked number one in the world in college achievement, today the U.S. ranks nearly last among OECD countries. .........(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009062410/americas-student-debt-now