Skip to main content

Educational Investment, Part III: Navigating a Sea of College Debt

*

I am in debt. In retrospect, my undergraduate career seems in part a veritable mission to accumulate debt. Since graduating I’ve stressed about debt, worked a couple of undesirable second jobs to repay debt, and I’ve even been known to defer debt, allowing it to simply growl beneath the bed from the back of my mind. I have nightmares where bill collectors show up at my back door with pitchforks - the only consolation being that so many of my peers are in the exact same situation.

This country is teeming with twenty and thirty-somethings struggling to manage educational debt, with a long string of people in their late-teens and early-twenties prepared to join us.

According to the Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit devoted to the issue, the portion of graduates in debt jumped from less than half in 1993 to over two-thirds in 2004. Factoring in inflation, debt levels for graduates rose 58% in that decade. The average public university graduate now finds him or herself owing over $17,000 in college debt. Students today can’t work while paying their way through college like their parents, either. Tuition and fees at public universities grew a whopping 40% between 2001 and 2006, and most students today are paying almost 200% of what their parents paid.**

However, President Obama’s budget for 2010 offers some rays of hope for reversing these trends:

Revitalizing Pell Grants
While Pell Grants have seen slight increases since 2006, rising tuition costs have softened the impact of these grants. The average Pell Grant that used to cover almost two-thirds of tuition cost now covers only one-third. The President’s budget offers to increase Pell Grants by $700 to $5,550 as well as promises to make the program mandatory as opposed to discretionary, so that all low-income families are ensured aid.

Making Perkins Loans Easy
The budget plan seeks to simplify the Perkins Loan Program, freeing up resources to increase the amount of money students are eligible to receive. Furthermore, proposed changes would discourage institutions from raising tuition or reducing grant aid.

American Opportunity Tax Credit
As part of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, college students are eligible for up to $2500 that can be put towards tuition, books, and other fees. The proposed budget for 2010 would make this credit permanent.

The budget also includes support for state efforts that improve college enrollment and completion, as well as a general commitment to streamlining the FAFSA application process, making it easier to understand.

And while none of this will do anything for my pocketbook, it does sound like things might be easier for my baby sister. Throughout this very blog, on the news, and from the political pulpit we hear that education is linked to healthier and happier lifestyles. Just think about how much you would learn, and what kind of knowledge you would seek, if given complete freedom to choose. Now, is the current price tag on that education worth it?

For more info on Default: the Student Loan Documentary, visit the website!

The Project on Student Debt's Factsheet is available in pdf format at the website.



This post was written by Allison Tritt, who lives in Wisconsin and blogs to foster global awareness and remind others that there is always a way to get involved. Please leave your comments or email Allison at ajtritt@gmail.com with any questions.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi,


• We have just added your latest post "Educational Investment, Part III: Navigating a Sea of College Debt" to our Directory of Grant Programs . You can check the inclusion of the post here . We are delighted to invite you to submit all your future posts to the directory for getting a huge base of visitors to your website and gaining a valuable backlink to your site.


Warm Regards

Project Grant Team

http://projectgrant.info

Popular posts from this blog

What is the Literacy Rate of the US?

The World Factbook , prepared by the CIA , states that the US literacy rate is around 99%. This means that around 3 million people in America are unable to functionally read and write . That is equivalent to the entire population of Mongolia! As if those numbers weren’t enough to make you sit up and think, there is some dispute about the 99% - the actual figure could be lower, depending on the various definitions of literacy used. Jonathan Kozol, in his book ‘Illiterate America’ states that the government based the 99% literacy rate on interviews and written responses to Census Bureau mailings from a small portion of the population. Of that portion, if the responders or interviewees had completed fifth grade they were considered literate. About 5% had not completed fifth grade , but 80% of those were subsequently considered literate, and so the Bureau reached a conclusion of a 99% literacy rate. In 1993 a new study was released . Over 5 years, and $14 million spent ( the largest lite

We Stopped Blogging and Got Serious About Our Future

It's been over four months since we last posted to this blog! While it breaks our heart to have been out of touch for so long, we had good reason. You see, our blog is run by volunteers of the Literacy 'n' Poverty Project. LnP is a social initiative I started that addresses multiple aspects of literacy - health, reading, writing and financial - to empower the poor and low-income adults to lift themselves up out of poverty . But, if you've been keeping up with our blog which we know you all have :), you can see that adult education has not been the focus. And rightfully so. How We Got Started Make Social Change A Reality was created as a venue to discuss various issues concerning the broader concept of social change from the environment to women's issues to healthcare to youth development . As a startup with goals of becoming an international social enterprise, we felt that y'all deserved a place of your own to learn, engage and share information and resources

The Meaning of Social Change

All around us, there are changes happening; the calendar changed from 2008 to 2009, a new president was elected, and for many us, we have decided to do things differently and make changes in our diet, our lifestyles, or in our overall well being. Social change is something that I plan to be involved with this year in many different ways: volunteering , reading, attending events and sharing ideas. Social change means different things to different people. To me, social change means being involved in making things better for your community. Doing something instead of just saying something. Raising money instead of just donating to a cause. Working with others to make sure that the change we desire is attainable. I have been involved with a variety of organizations that make social change a focus of their organization. This is important to me because I am a firm believer that through social change and helping each other and supporting one another, we as a people can right all