Student debt has skyrocketed over the past decade, quadrupling from just $240 billion in 2003 to more than $1 trillion today.1 If current borrowing patterns continue, student debt levels will reach $2 trillion in 2025.2 Average debt levels have risen rapidly as well: two-thirds (66 percent) of college seniors now graduate with an average of $26,600 in student loans,3 up from 41 percent in 1989.4 The rise of this “debt-for-diploma” system over the past decade was largely caused by the sharp decline in state funding for higher education, which has fallen by 25 percent since its peak in 2000.5
via At What Cost? How Student Debt Reduces Lifetime Wealth | Demos.
