Looming Loans & Scary Stats: A Student Loan Debt "Bubble" ?
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-04-02/looming-loans-scary-stats-student-loan-debt-bubble
The statistics on student loans are scary: Student debt skyrocketed to more than $867 billion last year, and nearly 15 percent of borrowers defaulted. Tuition is rising steadily amid a weakened economy and an 8.3% unemployment rate. The rising debt load has led to warnings of a student debt "bubble" akin to the housing mortgage loan crisis. But many experts say the real picture isn’t as grim as the headlines. Kojo explores what’s behind the numbers, plans to combat student debt, and how we’re rethinking paying for college.
Guests
Sandy Baum
Senior Fellow for the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University; she's also an independent higher education policy analyst and consultant
Mark Kantrowitz
Publisher of FinAid and Fastweb; Author of "Secrets to Winning a Scholarship"
Comments
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Turning 60 this year and I owe close to $80,000 in loans for my son. Lost my job 2 years ago and my income has dropped. Any ideas?
Good afternoon,
I was curious if you could address the aggregation of college loan debt and graduate school debt. I am a graduate of law school, in which I amassed a total of $105,000 in debt. However due to the economic reality, I hold a job that pays half of what my predicted income would be after graduation. Does this contribute to the bubble? How does this contribute to the issues at hand?
The US Congress provides up to $500 a month to pay employee student loan debt. This is a benefit more employers should offer.
Is there a way to refinance more than once? I refinanced down to 7.79%, which seemed like a deal back then. With $150,000 of medical school Sallie Mae loans, only a small percentage of my 1,000/month payment go to the principle.
A great show and an excellent topic for a call-in show. However, your guests gave the impression that the student loan system as is was great! Wrong! Nothing could be farther from the truth! Thousands upon thousands of us are drowning in intractable student loan debt, for a myriad of reasons, not simply that we "borrowed too much." The student loan system is broken, largely thanks to the enormous profits that federally insured loans with interest rates several points higher than prime are making for the federal government and private lenders, and the ready availability of student loans that are also keeping enrollment steady for the institutions, yet lack consumer protections, reasonable interest, and straghtforward pay back terms. Your guests Sandy Baum and Mark Kantrowicz are paid by these institutions, and did NOT represent the point of view that oversight and reform of the student lending system are desperately needed. Would be great if you could have another show including Robert Applebaum, Alan Collinge, Representative Hansen Clarke (D. Michigan) or any of the other leaders in the student loan reform movement.