Students, promised by parents and teachers that the only way to get a good job is with a college degree, have amassed large levels of debt. If one higher education expert gets his way, students could see their loan limits capped.
Mark Kantrowitz took to Money to make the case that letting students borrow massive loans is a recipe for lifelong debt, not societal advancement.
“College financial aid administrators must be permitted to reduce federal loan limits based on the student’s enrollment status and academic major. Students who are enrolled half-time should not be able to borrow the same amount as students who are enrolled full-time,” he writes.
The uncritical consensus that access matters more than affordability has started to fall.
College remains beneficial for the average graduate. The average graduate, however, isn’t always the average student. Four-year graduation rates for a bachelor’s degree is only 39.4 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Only when a six-year rate is used do American students reach a graduating majority, 59 percent.
Debt divides into two groups, those students who graduate and those students who drop out. The graduates have a much better chance of managing their debt and advancing in their careers, even though many have a higher debt load than non-graduates.
Doling out loans without considering the likelihood that students can complete their degrees isn’t considering their best interests. It’s encouraging students to take on debt in the pursuit of a college degree without asking about results.
Limiting the amount a student can borrow could help. It would decrease the number of students in deep debt. Limiting funds for part-time students helps as well, in that part-time students are less likely to complete a degree. As a total source of debt, part-time students accumulate more than the full-time students with the highest debt. Those with the highest debt tend to be students pursuing a graduate degree of some sort, where high debt is reduced with a high-paying job as a lawyer or doctor.
If student borrowing is limited, however, that could transform the meaning of higher education in the United States. The system is deeply democratic, where the only barrier to enrolling, or returning, to school is finding funds. A more solvent system would mean less access to a degree.
