Opinion
Student Loans Cause 36 Million to Drop Out of College
A
ccording to a new report,
since 2009, 36 million
Americans have attended
college without earning a degree.
Consequently, 850,000 individual
private loans valued at more than
$8 billion are now in default. With
high and variable interest rates,
these loans can cost students more
in repayment than the actual cost
of tuition. From 2005 to 2011
alone, private student loan debt
more than doubled from $56 bil-
lion to $140 billion.
Among Black students who did
not complete college, 69 percent
cited high student loan debt as the
reason. Soon after dropping out of
school, these ex-students began
struggling with repayment without
the earning power a degree could
have provided.
The report, The Student Debt
Crisis, is authored by the Center
for American Progress, an inde-
pendent, nonpartisan institute.
The October report analyzes key
factors in this looming financial
crisis including changes in debt
over time, the role lenders have
R ESPONSIBLE
L ENDING
Charlene
Crowell
played in the current crisis, who
has incurred debt and factors con-
tributing to the rise of
student debt.
Most of the $1 trillion in
combined federal and private
student loan debt can be
attributed to the the increas-
ing cost of college, the
choice by state legislatures to
make higher education a
lesser priority in annual
budgets, aggressive lending
practices, and the recession
cutting into the savings and
earning power of families, the
report stated.
“Students of color, particularly
African-Americans are graduating
with more student debt: 27 per-
cent of black bachelor’s degree
recipients had more than $30,500
in debt, compared to 16 percent
for their white counterparts. And
with Pell Grants facing cuts,
many students of color who rely
on these awards to help pay for
school will be forced to borrow at
even greater rates,” the report
observed.
Among students of color who
student loans that need to be
repaid. Among young African-
American college graduates under
the age of 34, more than half – 56
percent – have delayed purchasing
a home.
Further, the lengthy time it now
takes for most new graduates to
find employment brings another
dimension to student debt chal-
lenges. While nearly 9 percent of
recent White graduates are unem-
ployed; nearly 11 percent of
Black graduates and 13 per-
cent
of
Latinos
are
unemployed.
Financial pressures have
forced many state and local
governments
to
make
painful cuts, including in
education. This reduction in
funding left many institu-
tions of higher learning with
fiscal challenges. Some
school endowments also lost
funds as a result of the recession.
As a result, most schools turned to
raising the cost of tuition to
replace needed revenues. To make
matters worse for students, many
With high and variable
interest rates, these loans
can cost students more
in repayment than the
actual cost of tuition
graduate, the report found that 81
percent of Black students and 67
percent of Latino students typical-
ly have one hand holding a degree
and the other clutching multiple
Movies
Craig
continued from page 7
continued from page 6
miffed mother-in-law
(Soren Spanning). (In
Danish, French, German
and English with subti-
tles) ]
Luv
nephew (Thiecoura) on a
camping trip without his
long-estranged brother’s
(Johnny Knoxville) per-
mission. With Maura
Tierney, SNL alum Darrell
Hammond and the late
Patrice O’Neal.
A Royal Affair (R for
sexuality and violent
images) Romance drama
revolving around a philan-
dering queen (Alicia
Vikander) who schemes
with the help of her Royal
doctor
lover
(Mads
Mikkelsen) to wrest con-
trol of the Danish throne
from her insane husband
(Mikkel Boe Folsgaard),
much to the chagrin of her
Starlet
(Unrated)
Intergenerational drama,
set in L.A., about the
unlikely
friendshup
which blossoms when an
aspiring, young actress
(Dree Hemingway) finds
a small fortune in cash hid-
den inside an object for
sale at a cantekerous, eld-
erly widow’s (Besedka
Johnson) yard sale. With
James Ransone, Asa Akira,
Liz Beebe and Amin
Joseph.
ple around them to do their
job. The most successful
people I’ve met in my life
are the ones who’ve had the
ability to encourage and get
the best out of people.
KW: Attorney Bernadette
Beekman asks: What is
your favorite charity?
DC: I have several: Dr.
Bernardo’s children’s chari-
state-sponsored scholarships and
grants were reduced, if not elimi-
nated.
As costly as college has become,
there are still valid reasons to pur-
sue higher education. According
to Wilbert van der Klaauw, an
economist with the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, the
disparities in lifetime earnings are
stark. Americans with degrees can
expect their collective earnings to
reach $2.3 million. For people that
attended college but never com-
pleted a degree the lifetime
expected earnings drop to $1.5
million.
The report concluded, “The
overlap of the recent recession and
the continuing rise in student debt
has created a perfect storm that is
overwhelming many borrowers.”
Charlene Crowell is a communi-
cations manager with the Center
for Responsible Lending. She can
be reached at: Charlene.crow-
ell@responsiblelending.org.
ty… a friend of mine runs a
charity called Safe Africa,
which is dedicated to the
eradication of disease and
poverty in Africa… another
is the RNLI, the Royal
National Lifeboat Institu-
tion, which I try to help out
as much as I can… and a
few others. But you know
what? It may be a cultural
thing, but I kind of keep my
charity work private, maybe
because I’m English. I think
it’s a private matter. That’s
the way I grew up.
KW: Thanks again for the
time, Daniel. It’s been an
honor.
DC: Nice to talk to you,
Kam. Bye!
November 7, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 9