If you went to college, you didn't learn anything about research. These statistics are not hard to find.
There are approximately 37 million Americans with student loan debt. The average balance is about $24,000. Median debt is about $8,000 at public four-year schools and $17,000 at private four-year schools.
So where's the problem coming from? There are about 5 1/2 million Americans in default of student loan debt. Median debt at for-profit schools is about $32,000. The group with the highest rate of student loan default are the people who drop out of school.
This is all pretty straightforward. Don't enroll in any school that advertises during daytime television. If you're a bad student, college is probably not for you; develop a trade. If you're going into debt for college, finish it.
Really, though, there's no great crisis. The main reason that there are more people with student loan debt than ever before is because there are more people attending higher education than ever before. The vast majority of student loan borrowers, about 90%, pay off their loans without defaulting.
America, oddly enough, values education. Go figure.
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