Congratulations College Grads - Welcome To $30k in Debt

May 11, 2015
Joliet, Illinois

So your teen made it past a sea of harsh teenage unemployment, found their way to college and through hard work and perseverance they've graduated.  It is quite a feat and one that should be celebrated in the next coming months, rightly so.  But then after the celebrations are done and the hard-earned diploma is framed and placed on the wall, reality sets in, for parents and the graduate themselves... now we're stuck with $30,000 in student loan debt (this is an average debt of all students across this great nation.. many owe more)!

According to this national news source (from January 2015):
"With a rise in the number of students attending two and four-year universities comes a staggering increase in student loan debt.

To give you some context, 40 million Americans now have at least one outstanding student loan, with the average borrower carrying four different education-related loans. These numbers have pushed the student debt crisis to epic proportions, setting the amount of collectively-held student debt at an all-time high of $1.5 trillion.

This crisis has also given rise to a generation of "boomerang kids," with legions of college graduates putting off moving out, starting a family and buying a home due to overwhelming student debt. The average class of 2014 graduate left college $34,000 in the hole."

Even college organizations have lauded this fact, such as the National Organization of College Republicans (found on Twitter at @CRNC) posted about our national collegiate debt this week:

With a stagnant economy, especially in Illinois, having this high amount of college debt and the inability to secure a job to help pay off this debt, has further reaching ramifications:

As reported by U.S. News and World Report:  "In February [of 2015], the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that student loan balances rose to $1.16 trillion and that 11.3 percent of that is in delinquency – that is, not being paid back. The New York Fed is worried that this debt is preventing students from becoming self-sufficient adults who can live on their own.  “Student loan delinquencies and repayment problems appear to be reducing borrowers’ ability to form their own households,” wrote Donghoon Lee, research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in a press release accompanying the Feb. 17 report."

In April of 2015, USA Today News reported 
the following on this collegiate debt crisis:

"“I’ve got student loans just like everyone else walking around,” says Craig, a senior at Old Dominion University. “I expect my debt to be around $30,000 by the time I’m done here.”

“Yes, I have student loans,” says Kyle Coghill, a junior at Old Dominion. “I’m a 22-year-old studying communications at a university. Of course I have them. I have absolutely no clue how long I’ll be paying them off. I don’t really want to think about that.”

Craig and Coghill are just two of the 40 million people across the United States who have monumental student debt, as reported by CNN. In fact, student loans have increased by 84% since the recession (from 2008 to 2014) and are the only type of consumer debt not decreasing, according to a study from Experian, which analyzed student loan trends from 2008 through 2014.  The analysis also finds that in total, a staggering $1.2 trillion is bleeding students dry."

According to a March 10, 2015 report by the Wall Street Journal, Illinois 

student debt holds true to the national trend:

So our young adults in Illinois have accumulated $49.4 Billion in debt!  This is an alarming amount of debt for young adults in the State of Illinois!  Is this you, or your child's debt?  It is still being said that having a college education is the best path towards gaining employment.  However, without strong conservative leadership across our cities, counties and at the State General Assembly, Illinois will remain an un-friendly business environment, one in which jobs will not be created to assist these young adults in reaching their true potential in society.

With the election of Governor Bruce Rauner, Illinois has taken a small step forward towards a more prosperous business-friendly and job-growth state, but this was just a baby-step, we must keep pushing forward... elections will be coming again in 2016.

Liberal policies (high taxation, over-budget spending, high regulations, high barriers to business entry) over the past few decades, have placed a stranglehold, a stagnation, on the prosperity of our state.  We must continue to look for candidates, at every level, that understand the "economics" of Illinois and put those budget and tax conscious candidates in place to continue to put Illinois back on the right path towards economic growth, for these graduates and for future graduates.

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