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What Really is $1 Trillion in Student Loan Debt?

$1 trillion dollars is the equivalent of about $4,000 for every man woman and child in America.

If $1 were equal to 1 second, then $1 trillion would be 31,546 years.

Currently 58% of Americans with a college degree over 25 have some student loan debt.  This is about 37 million Americans.

Two thirds of the class of 2010 borrowed an average of about $25,000 dollars.  Only about 50% of them have a job at all, and about 75% of them returned to live home after college.

That same year, 2010, Americans borrowed more than 100 billion dollars for education.

Whereas 1 in 4 white students owes less than 13K, 1 in 3 black students owes more than 38K.

In 1972 Pell Grants covered 100% of tuition costs.  In 2011 they covered 34%.

41% of the class of 2005 is currently delinquent or in default. 

67 billion dollars in student loans are currently in default.  At any given point only 40% are in repayment.  Only 37% of student loans are paid without delay.

 

My Discussion of the $1 Trillion Student Debt Crisis on Democracy Now! on 1T Day

Reflections on the Winter Occupation

Occupy’s six-month birthday celebration last Saturday at Zuccotti Park was first spent in celebration: the scene was joyous with friends reuniting after winter hibernation. “Spring training” regimes were conducted. The drum circle was back, and mic checks once again created a collective voice.

But when protestors undertook a spontaneous, albeit brief, reoccupation, they were met with the most violent and unrestrained NYC police force to date. MTA buses were commandeered and over seventy arrests were made. The significance and power of the park was clear once again.

Police violence was immediately challenged with solidarity marches in New York and throughout the country on Sunday. In spite of a winter predicting our demise, Occupy is alive again this spring. Not that we were ever really dead, but since the cops evicted Zuccotti the first time last fall, OWS has been struggling to find a way of staying meaningful without the spectacle of the park. Liberty Park offered a sense of commonality, a point of access, and a feeling of empowerment that has been difficult to replicate.

Continued...

 

The Student Debt System: a Critical Juncture in the Production of Inequality

The following article contains thoughts that I would have liked to have shared on Democracy Now!, but didn't have time for.  Here's the clip of the interview with the article below:

 

 

For most Americans student debt is a simple matter: you got the education, you agreed to pay for it, you can't give back your brain, so suck it up and get to work.  Unfortunately, this sort of logic fundamentally misunderstands the systemic sources by which so much student debt has been incurred, and the long term inequality this debt is creating.  The misunderstanding most Americans have of the student debt cycle is particularly dangerous now that the amount of education debt is about to pass the 1 trillion dollar mark, which amounts to about four thousand dollars for every man, woman and child in this country.  According to the Project on Student Debt, of the class of 2008, 41% are either delinquent or in default.  Many recent reports have already begun to theorize student debt as the next bubble about to burst.  Unfortunately, this bubble has the potential to slowly ooze, causing unrelenting suffering for a generation, and even greater economic disparity for the 99%.

When you look carefully at the student debt crisis, you can see that it has been caused by complex relationships between four distinct types of entities:  governmental agencies, lenders, educational institutions and consumers.

Now is the Time to Refuse Student Debt (Part 1)

Later on today, the #OWS Empowerment & Education Working Group will launch a national campaign that will challenge and draw attention to the growing problem of student debt.

Student loan debt represents the largest portion of all "consumer" debt, and will exceed 1 trillion dollars by the end of the year. Currently, about 67% of students incur debt at the college level. In 2008, approximately 1.4 million seniors graduated with an average of about $26,000 dollars of student loan debt.

In spite of widespread use of loans to finance education, most Americans are unaware of the true nature of these loans, and some of the important issues around our pay-for-diploma education model. The layperson views student loans as a benevolent government program designed to help citizens move into the middle class by attending college. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that student loans have helped to create an education industry that now operates at the expense of our society.