Tuesday, April 24, 2012

How much student loan debt is there?

Someone did a search and found my blog when entering that question in Google.

Here's the answer: $1,000,000,000,000

That's why Occupy Student Loan Debt is carrying out a mock celebration tomorrow. Join them.  

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The truth is that no one knows how much education loan debt there is. (The "student loan debt" terminology omits parent PLUS loans, which, although, like Perkins, are a tiny percentage of the total, they get the anti-Obama conspiracists in a tizzy for some reason.) The federally-guaranteed education loan debt is knowable, but the alternative education loan debt is not knowable, at least until CFPB gets its act together, stops launching meaningless web sites, does some actual research, finds out who all of them are, and sends them official letters asking for informal monthly updates on their portfolios. One thing that is knowable: Finaid's estimates of alternative education loan debt are way high, based on pre-liquidity-crisis trends. Alternative loan issuance dropped off a cliff after 2007 after several years of meteoric growth. That means outstanding balances have not been growing nearly as fast as during the 2000-2007 timeframe.

Cryn Johannsen said...

@Anonymous 12:42 AM - I appreciate your remarks, and am aware that the terminology, as you stated, omits parent PLUS loans. There is also no concrete data on outstanding private student loan debt. Having researched and written about the crisis for 3 years, I know there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people who are struggling or unable to pay their loans. I've met these people face-to-face, talked with them on the phone, and exchanged notes with them via email.

We are also aware that currently 36 million Americans have federal student loans.

The point is: it's a crisis, and a lot of people are suffering out here.

Anonymous said...

Can the next Census include the pertinent questions about how much Student Loan debt a person or family owes, and what type, public or private, duration etc?

indianist said...

Is there any other procedure to get education loan? pls give some simple way how to get education Loan? Pls......

indianist said...

Some people saying Education Loan Guarantee is not required is this true or not pls give detail and mail me.....

indianist said...

Hi there, can someone tell me what happens if you don’t pay your education loan? I have read somewhere that the serious actions will be taken on the student? Is it true………..

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