The Staggering Weight Of Student Loan Debt

About 45 million Americans have student loan debt, according to a 2018 analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

And it all adds up to $1.6 trillion.

Student debt and what to do about it has already become a 2020 campaign issue. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, for instance, has proposed a plan to cancel $640 billion in student loan debt, saying that the problem has reached a “crisis” level.

It wasn’t always this way. A number of colleges in the U.S. used to be tuition-free..

How did students start having to borrow so much to pay for college? Who can address the student debt crisis?

Produced by Paige Osburn.

GUESTS

Tressie McMillan Cottom, Author, “Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges In The New Economy” and “Thick: And Other Essays”; assistant professor of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University; @tressiemcphd

Paul Tough, Author, “The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us”; @paultough

Michelle Singletary, Syndicated columnist of “The Color of Money” for The Washington Post; @SingletaryM

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