Posted on 09/26/2012 5:11:08 PM PDT by Steelfish
1 in 5 Households Now Owe Student Debt, New Pew Research Study Shows Forty percent of U.S. households headed by someone younger than age 35 owed student debt in 2010 – double the percentage from 20 years ago, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis that found a record one in five households hobbled by student debt.
“We know the total amount of student debt has been rising, but what this study does is help us get a handle on who owes it,” said Richard Fry, a researcher with the Pew Center. Outstanding student loans have topped $1 trillion, and rising tuition costs have spurred colleges and students to call for reforms.
“It’s been a hard labor market for everyone, but particularly for 18- to 20-year-olds, who have not been able to find work or find work in their qualified field,” Fry said. View the Pew Research Center's complete report (Pdf)
Households headed by someone younger than age 35 have by far the highest share of the debt among the age groups, Fry said. He said 70 percent of the total debt was owed by households headed by those under age 45.
Among households owing student debt, the average outstanding student loan balance edged upward to $26,682 in 2010 from $23,349 in 2007, data show.
Fry said incidence of student debt increased in nearly every demographic and economic category since 2007, but households with incomes less than $21,000 were hardest hit.
“While households with higher incomes also had student debt, they were able to shed other debt obligations,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.nbcnews.com ...
One reason why I wouldn’t be surprised to see loan forgiveness rear its head in October.
This could be the October Surprise...some kind of student loan amnesty via an Executive Order.
Why don’t they add in what they owe on the national debt?
Even if Obama simply talks about it, it would be enough to create a tsunami wave effect of debtors going his way.
Unfortunately George Bush had a hand in creating this monster when he signed the reformed bankruptcy laws in 2005 prohibiting Student loans from being discharged via bankruptcy. But he wasn’t alone Clinton started it in his last term.
But yes I could see a desparate BHO trying something like amnesty, but even with that, given the employment situation of college graduates, it may not sway many voters to vote for him or make college demorats not sit home.
The student loan fiasco is one program RINOs and Demorats both had a hand in.
My kids don’t owe anything.
Never mind, I taught them math and reading myself.
On a typical campus, per capita students spending for alcohol--$446 per student--far exceeds the per capita budget of the college library. (Eigen, 1991 in the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse).
College students spend over $5.5 billion a year on alcoholic beverages (mostly beer)--more than they spend on all other drinks [soda, tea, milk, juice and coffee] and books combined. Sidney Ribeau, PresidentBowling Green State University http://www.collegevalues.org/diaries.cfm?id=476&a=1. See also www.hsph.harvard.edu/cas/rpt1998/CAS1998rpt2.html [which is also a illustration of how to do a survey.]
Government outlays intended to hold down the price of a college degree have risen, in inflation-adjusted dollars, from $29.6 billion in 1985 to $139.7 billion in 2010, an increase of 372 percent since Ronald Reagan’s day. Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, Apr 29, 2012 base on CATO study. http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa686.pdf
Outstanding student loan debt in the United States appears to have surpassed $1 trillion by late 2011 “Student-Loan Debt Tops $1 Trillion,” Wall Street Journal, Economy, March 22, 2012,
Over 300,000 Americans from nearly 6,000 different schools defaulted on their loans in 2009. http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/attachments/091211FY09CDRBriefingAttach2.pdf
As many as 27% of all student loan borrowers are more than 30 days past due as of March 2012. http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/federal-reserve-bank-of-new-york
The balance of federal student loans has grown by more than 60 percent in the last 5 years (2012). Payments are being made on only 38 percent of the balance of federal student loans, down from 46 percent five years ago. Almost 1 in 10 borrowers who started repayment in 2009 defaulted within 2 years, approximately twice the rate in 2005. N.Y. Times, “A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College,” May 12, 2012
From REVEALING STATISTICS
You know these student loan debt BS talking points really p;ss me off. The only reason this administration took over this debt is so it could then throw it in our faces and know exactly how much these students owe.
He couldn’t have just left it the way it was where the student/parents found different lenders and went with the best deal they could get. I’m really, really angry about this.
A little background so you don’t think I’m being unfair. I have just finished 4 years of college with my oldest. I have another that is in his second year of college. I will have one more entering next year. So, I know what I’m talking about.
I took out loans the first year my oldest was in. Then the government took them over without my say. Then on years after I again had no choice on where the loan was established. I was not happy then, I am not happy now. Do I want them to dissolve me/us of these loans? NO......
I was not able to go to college and I’m making darn sure my kids have the benefit of going. And they will pay their way with my help of course, but they will pay for this college education. I do not think that you or my neighbor should be burdened with the cost of my kids education. This totally falls on them if they wish to go. They did and we did it.
Sorry - rant time for me! :)
And this is how he keeps his college school kid base. Where does he always go for his damn rallies?????? Yep, Colleges all over the country. You know why? Because they are stupid and vulnerable and if you throw in their face that you are going to help them with their student loans - guess what? They vote for you in the state that they are attending and then again in the state that they came from. Vote early - vote often! Ring a bell?
Face palm.... Sorry again! ;(
I’m relatively young and have a crapload of student debt (well over 20,000). However, I know the whole idea of ‘debt forgiveness’ is economic suicide that will end up hurting me more down the road when it will rob me of employment.
Hugs!
Which means that 4 out of 5 know better than to load up on student debt.
My granddaughter just started college. She has a full tuition scholarship and received enough other scholarships to pay for her room, books and meal plan.
Her roommate got scholarships and is low income so got the room and board paid for and then turns around and takes out a 3K loan! So did her best friend. She has been lecturing them and trying to teach them to live within their means but they don’t care. They don’t see this hitting them down the road. They are buying clothes, getting tatoos, paying to eat at hamburger joints when they have their meals already paid for.
Foregiveness means the taxpayer picks up the costs and since we borrow 42 cents of every federal dollar spent, we will just add it to our $16 trillion tab for our children and grandchildren to pay.
“Why don’t they add in what they owe on the national debt?”
Or just tax the rich to pay off student loans. Don’t know why liberals haven’t thought of that one yet....................
LOL, don’t give them ideas.
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