A Student-Debit Crisis Looms

America has a $1.5 trillion student-debt problem. And this fact is something on which both Democrat and Republican voters agree.

Over half of Republicans, 67% of Independents, and 71% of Democrats believe that the student-debt problem in the United States has reached a critical level. While policymakers and politicians debate whether the problem actually amounts to a crisis, ordinary people experience growing anxiety as educational debt they cannot pay off begins to cripple myriad aspects of their lives.

In the past few years, tuition prices rose steadily across all institutions, but wages remained stagnant. Therefore, families had to pay more of their already limited income on higher education. Since wages have not increased, the young graduates emerging from colleges and universities cannot find jobs that pay enough to offset the debt the students went into to obtain the degrees they needed to get the jobs in the first place.

The trickle-down effect is obvious: young people do not make enough money to pay off their debt AND contribute to the economy. They are getting married much later in life or not at all, they are not buying houses, and they are having fewer, if any, children.

If you or your family have been affected by unmanageable student loan debt, it may be time to take your concerns to the polls.