Neil Ahmed

The Problem With 1.6 Trillion Dollars of Student Debt

When you decided to go to college, you made a substantial, long-term financial decision. You chose to invest in yourself. The choice of attaining a degree in higher education is great for many, and can produce high dividends. Students who earn a bachelors degree, on average, will earn over a million dollars more in lifetime income than a student with solely a high school diploma.

So, what’s the catch, right?

Like fishing, the return of your investment is ultimately unknown, and unfortunately, comes without  guarantee of success, wealth or health. Quite frankly, the only real guarantee for the majority of college students, like me, is student-loan debt and the threat of very high interest rates. 

Co-author of Game of Loans: The Rhetoric and Reality of Student Debt, Dr. Chingo, advises students to know exactly what you are going to owe and find the best interest rate before you sign up to take out a student-loan. This is great advice. However, he admitted the irony of his advice. You simply don’t learn about interest, financing or debt until you actually take related-courses in college. “We expect students to exercise the critical thinking skills they need to understand how student loans work before they even get the education that’s supposed to teach them those skills.”

Furthermore, other experts argue that President-elect Joe Biden, technically has ability to enforce executive orders to forgive a portion, majority or even all of student loans. President-elect Joe Biden assumes office as President in January but he will need the support of Congress.

However, to extinguish the debt, congress will significantly need more than one executive order. Many policy changes need to be made in many different areas surrouding this mind boggling debt. I don’t have the right answer, experts don’t have the right answer but it’s apparent that “we’re not going to see any major policy changes unless Congress gets its act together.”