The College Fix

Ashley Thorne of the National Association of Scholars surveys the fallout from the student loan crisis in her latest essay:

One of the most depressing prospects the nation faces is rising student loan debt. Everywhere we hear about college graduates crippled by loan payments delaying marriage, children, home ownership, and other marks of adulthood.

“I have $50,000 in student loan debt and my B.A. is useless,” a 99-percenter declares.

“I’m unemployed. I’m disabled. I live with my mother. I have no income,” laments a guy named Nick in the documentary Default.

“You could throw hundred dollar bills down this bottomless hole for the rest of your life, and it’ll never fill up,” shrugs a disillusioned middle-aged woman named Mel.

More than an irksome monthly payment, student loan debt has come to represent ruined (or at least painful) lives. Widespread realization of this is perhaps the biggest takeaway of the Occupy movement so far. Another big takeaway is that students and graduates don’t know how to handle their own finances. They borrow naïvely, attend high-tuition universities, graduate with six figures of debt, and suddenly feel overwhelmed, paralyzed by their predicament. That’s why many of the Occupiers have come across as coddled children. They appear not to know how to deal with the consequences of their actions other than to try to protest the consequences away. Petitioning for student loan forgiveness and boycotting repayment are the best solutions they can come up with.

Thorne suggests that hard work and financial discipline–novel concepts for many in the Occupy crowd who have sought a government bailout–are the way out for students who find themselves drowning in student loans. And she details a new program called SALT that seeks to educate and inspire young graduates, setting them on a path to emerge from their financial woes.

Click here for the rest of Thorne’s essay.

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