Student loans have become a necessary part of going to college, however it is becoming increasingly difficult for students to escape the debt once they finish their schooling.
Easy Money
The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden [Wall Street Journal]
“Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can’t make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens”
“Yet many former students are trying. There is an estimated $730 billion in outstanding federal and private student-loan debt, says Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org, a Web site that tracks financial-aid issues—and only 40% of that debt is actively being repaid. The rest is in default, or in deferment, which means that payments and interest are halted, or in “forbearance,” which means payments are halted while interest accrues.”
This is becoming a serious problem for students today. The cost of a higher level education is spiraling out of control, and students are becoming servants of their accumulated debt. Schools have always said that a degree will increase your potential salary, but many recent graduates are questioning that wisdom while they struggle to find jobs in our struggling economy.
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