Who Really Pays To Send American Students To College

Who Really Pays for American Students to Go to College?

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer | December 29, 2015

Idividually, Americans spend a lot on higher education. Most undergraduates finish with about $30,000 in debt. It’s an average that calls into question how much voters, educators and policymakers have done to support the country’s colleges and students. Americans instead nurtured a student‑loan industry whose debt totals account for more than 6 per cent of the United States’ GDP.

American student loan debt has surpassed the GDP of Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland combined. February 18, 2015. Source: http://qz.com/346342/american-student-loan-debt-has-surpassed-the-gdp-of-australia-new-zealand-and-ireland-combined/

Decisions made in the Great Depression can be partially blamed for the trillion dollars alumni now owe. That 1930s catastrophe threatened to shutter scores of colleges and universities because most schools, be they public or private, depended on tuition. 

Source: https://aeon.co/opinions/the-american-way-is-to-finance-not-fund-college-education

<more at https://aeon.co/opinions/the-american-way-is-to-finance-not-fund-college-education; related links: http://qz.com/346342/american-student-loan-debt-has-surpassed-the-gdp-of-australia-new-zealand-and-ireland-combined/ (American student loan debt has surpassed the GDP of Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland combined. February 18, 2015) and https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/news/research/2015/rp150217.html (Household Debt Continues Upward Climb While Student Loan Delinquencies Worsen. February 17, 2015)>