Student Loan Debt Tops $1 Trillion, Prompts Federal Reform
For most students, it's a necessary evil: loans.
About 60 percent of the 20 million Americans who attend college each year must take out loans, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. After decades of borrowing, student loan debt has swelled to a trillion dollars.
"I'm scared about graduating and how I'm going to pay for them," admits Shalea Klepner.
A reform of the Higher Education Act could give students more payment options, and on Thursday, U.S. Senators held their eighth hearing to discuss changes to the bill.
What's motivating much of the discussion at the federal level is equality of access to higher education.
"If you are a high-income, low-performing student, you have an 80 percent chance of going to college. If you're a low-income, high-performing student, your chances of going to college are only 20 percent," said Iowa Democrat, Sen. Tom Harkin. "That needs to be corrected."
Despite the seemingly insurmountable debt incurred during college, many students say the rewards of education outweigh the risks.
"I think its like an investment and I'll have to pay that money," said USC senior Christina Burcelis. "But in the end, I think it's going to benefit me instead of going to a smaller school."
The trouble is that young people have no idea of how hard it is to repay $100,000. The drag on their quality of life during the repayment years is beyond their comprehension.
The trouble with the system is that the availability of loans has allowed educational institutions to raise the costs to the student. It was much easier when I emerged from school in the sixties to pay off my low-interest government loan. Schools hadn't yet learned how to gouge the customer.