Antecedents and Perspectives on the Student Debt Crisis

• In Event: Public Interest 3

Abstract

The National debt clock is tick, ticking away and each day the pool of debt grows deeper drowning Americans in its wake. Student loans are the second largest category of debt (behind mortgages) and the overall outstanding balance growing at an alarming rate. These loans are taken out by students who are innocently pursuing a version of the American Dream. Currently, tight labor markets have elevated the competition for jobs by prospective employees and have given employers an opportunity to be selective due to the oversupply of qualified candidates. Simultaneously, colleges and universities continue spending millions of dollars as a means of competing to attract the best and the brightest students in the world. Upgraded dormitories, athletic facilities, salary/benefit packages and the like getting built into the budgets and the costs are ultimately being passed down to the next class of students. Is this the next debt crisis?

Authors

• Joseph Riotto, New Jersey City University

• Laure Bolla, Centenary College

• Christina Furfaro, Student

• Kathleen Mowatt, Centenary College

• Robert Larsen, Centenary College