Wall Street Journal

Ending the Growing Student-Debt Problem

June 17, 2019

NAICU President David L. Warren wrote:  Today the overwhelming majority of college borrowers have manageable student-loan debt: 63% of all borrowers owe less than $25,000  ("The Long Road to the Student-Debt Crisis” (Wall Street Journal, June 8). 

At the same time, nearly 30% of undergraduate students graduate without debt.The value of a college degree also remains strong. Just this month, Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the New York Federal Reserve reaffirmed their groundbreaking 2014 research on the value of a bachelor’s degree, writing in “Liberty Street Economics”: “The college wage premium has remained near its all-time high and the return on college now stands at around 14%—easily surpassing the threshold for a good investment.”

For most people, the benefits still outweigh the costs, and a college degree is most definitely worth it—and worth the investment.

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