(From forbes.com):
By Tom Lindsay
Today, college students are saddled with more student loan debt than ever before in American history. The average student loan debt for 2017 graduates was over $39,000, which is a six percent uptick from 2016. Students owe nearly $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. According to the website, StudentLoanHero.com, student loan debt now runs $620 billion higher than total national credit card debt. In addition, the site reports that 44.2 million Americans now carry student loan debt; 11.2 percent of borrowers are more than 90 days delinquent or in default on their repayment; and the average monthly student loan payment (for borrowers aged 20 to 30 years) is $351.
Such burdensome debt not only harms individual graduates and their families, but also the economy as a whole, because these debt-laden graduates often have to decline or delay buying homes and starting families. As far back as 2011, a New York Times piece labeled student-loan debt the “anti-dowry.” Since then, as the above statistics demonstrate, life for college loan borrowers has grown only more beleaguered. CONTINUE READING HERE