(from Inside Higher Ed):
By Paul Fain
Community colleges are relatively affordable, and their students tend to borrow less than those who attend other types of institutions. Yet the debt students rack up at community colleges is troubling.
The reason is that students who attend two-year colleges struggle to repay even small loans, and often default on them, a concern that is reinforced by a new study from one of the sector’s primary trade groups — the Association of Community College Trustees.
Just 17 percent of community college students take out federal loans, the report said, which is much less than at four-year public institutions (48 percent), private colleges (60 percent) and for-profits (71 percent). But students who attend community colleges are more likely to default. CONTINUE READING HERE