By — Vic Pasquantonio Vic Pasquantonio Leave a comment 0comments Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/twitter-chat-solve-student-debt-crisis Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Twitter chat: How do we solve the student debt crisis? Education Aug 23, 2017 10:55 AM EDT Student loan debt in the U.S. stands at $1.3 trillion, leading many Americans to doubt whether or not college is worth it. In 2015, students who graduated from a public or nonprofit college had an average debt of $30,100. For those pursuing a college degree, 41 percent of students did not complete their degree in six years. Socioeconomics and demographics play a significant role in whether or not students complete college and those who are disproportionately likely to be behind in their student loan payments. How did we get to this point? What should lawmakers, lenders and colleges do to help students deal with crushing debt? To dig into the student debt crisis and explore new funding models, Ted Malone, executive director of the Purdue Division of Financial Aid (@TedMalone2); Natalia Abrams, executive director of StudentDebtCrisis.org (@debtcrisisorg); Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress (@EduBenM); and Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Report (@JonMarcusBoston) joined the PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) on Twitter for the latest edition of #NewsHourChats. Follow our conversation below: [View the story “Twitter chat: How do we solve the student debt crisis?” on Storify] We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Vic Pasquantonio Vic Pasquantonio Victoria Pasquantonio is education producer at PBS NewsHour. She taught middle and high school social studies and English for many years and heads up NewsHour Extra, NewsHour's teacher resource website. @vicpasquantonio
Student loan debt in the U.S. stands at $1.3 trillion, leading many Americans to doubt whether or not college is worth it. In 2015, students who graduated from a public or nonprofit college had an average debt of $30,100. For those pursuing a college degree, 41 percent of students did not complete their degree in six years. Socioeconomics and demographics play a significant role in whether or not students complete college and those who are disproportionately likely to be behind in their student loan payments. How did we get to this point? What should lawmakers, lenders and colleges do to help students deal with crushing debt? To dig into the student debt crisis and explore new funding models, Ted Malone, executive director of the Purdue Division of Financial Aid (@TedMalone2); Natalia Abrams, executive director of StudentDebtCrisis.org (@debtcrisisorg); Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress (@EduBenM); and Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Report (@JonMarcusBoston) joined the PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) on Twitter for the latest edition of #NewsHourChats. Follow our conversation below: [View the story “Twitter chat: How do we solve the student debt crisis?” on Storify] We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now