Three of four college students will graduate $27,000 in debt; that’s a new car, a house down payment or a graduate degree.
That’s twice the college-loan debt of previous generations.
Tuition at public four-year colleges has more than doubled in the past three decades, even after adjusting for inflation, according to the U.S. Department of Education, created in 1980. Its mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
Student debt is an economic and political issue. Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton addressed this issue in speeches and on her campaign website. Clinton, born in Chicago in 1947, received a juris doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1973. She served as first lady of the United States to President Bill Clinton from 1993-2001; junior U.S. senator, representing New York from 2001 to 2009; and U.S. secretary of state from 2009-2013.
Clinton has proposed that every student will have the option to graduate from a public college or university in their state without taking on any student debt and delinquent borrowers and those in default will get help to protect their credit and get back on their feet.
American culture teaches us that the purpose of receiving an education is to establish our independence and live the American dream, which usually includes a car, a house, and maybe a family. Independence is being hindered because college graduates are postponing major purchases, marriage and children.
I am a student who will graduate in debt. My debt will hinder the personal goals that I have set for myself. I want to be a homeowner before I’m 30. I would also like to get married and have children, but I want to support my family or at least make a significant contribution to our income. If I marry someone in my generation who is college-educated, there is a 71 percent chance that, he too, is in debt. Once I’m married, our debt becomes one, and together we could owe $54,000 or more in student loans.
This is not the future I want for myself.
Until a serious change is made, such as Hillary Clinton’s propositions, Goodnight Moon’s author, Margaret Wise Brown, might say, — “Goodbye red sports car, goodbye single-family home with two-car garage and eat-in kitchen, goodbye master’s degree, goodbye husband and goodbye kids.”
The Generational Delay 