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  • Americans pursuing higher education tend to have more debts
  • Posted By:
  • Kathy H
  • Posted On:
  • 12-Oct-2012
  • In a staggering revelation, Americans who have higher education degrees are under higher debts as compared to the ones who either did only schooling or left midway. This clearly reflects the current scenario of education system in the country.

    According to a recent study, as many as 27 percent citizens of our country have to shell out 40 percent of their annual income as debts. This statistics showed the results of 2008. If you compare this with the year 1998, only 17 percent of Americans had to shell out the same amount as debts. Such a scenario is not good for any economy. Unfortunately, people across the country are very much aware of the growing expenses associated with education and hence most of them are opting to not go for higher education.

    The current situation is more like a catch 22 thing. There is absolutely no denying the importance of higher education. With more numbers of people holding degrees under their belt, the economy is invariably going to do well. However, the growing education expense is also a worry for students and their families. With increase in the numbers of debt holders, defaulters too are going to more a lot.

    Also, there is tremendous amount of frustration growing amongst people who have a good degree under their belt. After all, no individual would like to spend as much as 40 percent on debts. Usually, when a student passes out of higher education, he/she is convinced to face almost any type of economical crises effectively. However, with a situation of this sort rising, more numbers of students and their families do not have much conviction left in the education system.

    40 percent is usually a huge amount. Individuals could get into a lot of trouble if there is a sudden drop in their annual income. For instance – it will be extremely challenging for an individual to keep up with household expenses as well as leisure expenses during an economic crises like recession.

    The rootcause of all this is ever rising educational cost in the country. For-profit schools and colleges have been given the authority to go ahead and take any amount as fees. Unfortunately, most of these colleges have taken ill benefit of this authority.

    On the other hand, community colleges and public institutes have failed to attract large numbers of students mainly because of lack of facilities. Also, the overall quality of education is not regarded very highly at community colleges and hence students are reluctant to join them.

    Looking at the current situation, only two solutions seem to be realistic. First, the overall funding granted to colleges and educational institutes should go up. This will encourage these institutes to go ahead and charge fewer fees to students as they would already have enough amount of money to provide good facilities. Secondly, the board should eventually decide the amount of fees a college can charge upon the students. The situation would certainly get better if these elements are taken into consideration.









 

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