Five years into repayment, student borrowers are swimming in debt.
According to a recent report, more than 30 percent of student loan borrowers are struggling to keep their student debt in check five years into repayment.
Ben Miller, senior director for post-secondary education at the Center for American Progress, uncovered the startling evidence that 15.5 percent were in default, 4.8 percent were more than three months late on their payments, and 10.2 percent had simply quit making payments.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average student borrower will have taken out $22,000 by the time they graduate. Around 280,000 of these borrowers default between years three and five of their payments.
Despite this major issue, our nation’s colleges and universities are not being held accountable.
Colleges are raking in billions of dollars in financial aid, while students are being saddled with an unbearable amount of debt. Under federal law, colleges participating in the student loan program can’t let their share of borrowers who default be above 30 percent for three consecutive years or 40 percent in any single year. While this is already an absurdly low standard, Miller argues that the Department of Education and Congress “may be turning a blind eye” by not looking at the longer–term figures.
Colleges are also dodging accountability by offering deferments, which allow borrowers to halt payments without becoming delinquent or defaulting. This effectively allows colleges to postpone the default of loans until after the three-year tracking period.
Many students find themselves swimming in debt, clinging to useless degrees, without recourse against the college that set them up for real-world failure. While college administrators might beg to differ, the primary purpose of a college education should be to prepare students for the workforce. In fact, more than 55 percent of students choose to go to a four-year university “to pursue a particular career.” If the college is not delivering on this objective, it is acting fiscally irresponsible with taxpayer funds and ultimately threatening the livelihoods of its students.
As Miller observes, low-income students are often the most vulnerable to this debt trap. These students are attending college so that they can achieve upward mobility, and instead they find themselves drowning in loan payments. Sadly, one-third of low-income student borrowers at public institutions drop out before they even graduate.
By failing to deliver on their promises, colleges are causing a widespread debt crisis in this country, and creating long-term financial challenges for their students. If no action is taken, this crisis will only continue to grow worse every year.
Brendan Pringle (@BrendanPringle) is a freelance journalist in California. He is a National Journalism Center graduate and formerly served as a development officer for Young America’s Foundation at the Reagan Ranch.
