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Is a Student Loan Crisis on the Horizon?
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Is a Student Loan Crisis on the Horizon?

Beth Akers and Matthew M. Chingos
Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, 2014
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8

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  • Innovative

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Media reports suggest that mounting student debt in the United States signals a potential crisis that could slow consumer spending and threaten economic growth. Yet despite higher loan balances and more student borrowers, education policy researchers Beth Akers and Matthew M. Chingos say that the monetary benefits of a college education still significantly outweigh the costs of student debt. Though its conclusions may seem a bit too optimistic to those facing years of college loan repayments, getAbstract suggests this informative study to students and families.

Take-Aways

  • While both the cost of postsecondary education and student debt in the United States have skyrocketed since the 1990s, the picture is not as grim as it first appears.
  • Among borrowers who received bachelor’s degrees in 2011–2012, debt averaged about $26,000; only 4% of borrowers owed more than $100,000.
  • Nonetheless, the number and amounts of student loans have grown: Among young households, the percentage of those with education debt rose from 14% in 1989 to 36% in 2010, and the mean amount of per-person debt rose from $5,810 to $17,916.

About the Authors

Beth Akers and Matthew M. Chingos are fellows at the Brown Center on Educational Policy at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit independent research organization.

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