In this week’s State of the Union address, President Obama vowed to continue fighting for his college affordability proposal during his final term in office. The student debt crisis isn’t going anywhere; according to the White House, most bachelor’s degree recipients are graduating with an average of $29,000 in debt.
This number is even higher for private school students, like Kristiana Carnivale, a freshman biology pre-med student at Shenandoah University, who owes close to that average in a single semester.
“[The] majority of my tuition is paid for by loans — $5,000 in federal loans and $30,000 in private loans [per semester]. I only got one scholarship,” Carnivale said. “[And] I have to go to medical school, so I’ll have another four years after Shenandoah.”
While even Carnivale agrees that college is a smart investment that provides a leg-up in the adult world, many former students find that the crippling cost can put them a step behind in starting families and progressing with their lives.
Around two-thirds of students polled by American Student Assistance said their student loan debt has led them to put off buying a house or car, or save for retirement. Other common delays included marriage and children.
“An entire generation of adults has temporary given up trying to achieve the traditional markers of adulthood,” due to their crippling debt, suggested Boston Globe contributor Jenai Engelhard Humphreys.
The issue of paying back these loans is key to winning the millennial vote in 2016, so presidential primary candidates are beginning to develop college affordability plans to help the indebted generation.
Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton promises a deal to make public college free for all students. Her “New College Compact,” includes billions of dollars in grants to states to lower tuition costs at public colleges. It also increases the availability of loan refinancing for students to lower their interest rate.
Her Democratic competitor, Bernie Sanders, offers a similar deal, though it goes even further to eliminate all tuition and fees at public colleges and universities by having the federal government provide two-thirds of the cost and have the states pick up the rest.
The GOP candidates have had less to say about college affordability.
Popular Republican candidate Marco Rubio, who claims to understand high loan debt with more than $100,000 in loans when he graduated, has an outline of a plan. Rubio promotes a capitalist system, hoping to increase competition between schools and implement a payback program based on income.
His opponents Dr. Ben Carson and Donald Trump do not blame the loans, but rather, the interest rates. Student loan interest rates can be up to 18 percent — six times higher than is typical for a mortgage loan. Carson hopes to solve this issue, suggesting that universities be responsible for covering the interest on their students’ loans.
Unfortunately, each one of these controversial programs will be slow to enact, and will not help many current and former students. For these students, many are pushing for total loan forgiveness, or a change in the availability of financial aid.
“I think there should be more options for aid, and also make it easier to be eligible for scholarships,” Carnivale said. “Parents’ salaries may be a lot on paper, but a majority of that isn’t available to pay for school.”
For students dealing with high amounts of loan debt, Columbia College’s Financial Aid Department advises no more than 8 percent of a student’s income go toward their loan payment — although this may mean extending the payment period. Kristen Kuchar at The Simple Dollar suggests being as informed as possible about your loan, by knowing how it works and what methods are available to pay it back.
Meanwhile, students nationwide are spiraling into bankruptcy due to astronomically high student loan debt — and it looks like the price of college won’t be coming back down any time soon.
