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Student Loan Debts Are Sinking American Dreams

Tuesday 23 June 2009

by: NOW, t r u t h o u t | Programming Note

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The high cost of education is leaving undergraduate students in a sea of debt. (Photo: Lowry Lou)

    How massive student loan debts are sinking American dreams and causing a national economic headache.

    According to the Department of Education, the average amount of an undergraduate student loan in this country is now more than $22,000. NOW on PBS intimately follows the equally tragic and heroic story of a single mother in Baltimore trying to dig herself out of a $70,000 student loan debt. While issues of personal responsibility are debated, there's no question the high price of higher education is creating an ocean of student loan debt for people who can least afford it - and yet another frustrating complication for America's economic recovery.

    At NOW Online:

    Personal student loan stories from across the nation: www.pbs.org/now/shows/525/student-loan-stories.html

    Expert insight on how to smartly manage your student loan debt, and brand new government programs to help: www.pbs.org/now/shows/525/student-debt-advice.html

    Selections from our email correspondence with Sallie Mae about their response to our report: www.pbs.org/now/shows/525/Sallie-Mae-debt.html

  

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Comments

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Handling the debt well is

 Tue, 06/23/2009 - 21:45 — Anonymous (not verified)
Handling the debt well is not the issue when the debt is so large compared to pay check.

My credit is forever ruined

 Wed, 06/24/2009 - 03:02 — Kate (not verified)
My credit is forever ruined because of Student loans. But you know what .. I don't care. I'm actually glad it is. Taught me a very valuable life lesson that I have gladly passed on to my children. No loans, no credit cards.. Period. If you can't pay for it in cash - you do not need it. Do I feel bad I will probably never get my loan payed off... hm I did at first but not so much anymore. Try being a single parent- where Hud pushes up the rent on crappy housing- so you don't quite qualify for hud- but everyplace that was available to me was hud certified -sooo the building owners get to charge unbelievable amounts for rent. No Insurance.. and I was a Nurse - so relatively low paying job.. When you fall into a gray area - you are basically XXXXXX . I would have been better off - not going to University. If I had stayed in a lower bracket pay range I would have at least gotten more help. As soon as I earned $3.00 more per hour .. I pretty much fell into that obscure gray area. That $3.00 cost me more and did more harm than anything in my life. :) I feel like the system was set up for me to fail so .. * rude gesture * to the system. lol.. American dream hm is more American Nightmare. The only people that benefit from me going to university were bankers , tax man and yea :) you get the picture.