College debt yahoo

For millions of students, the global pandemic fundamentally altered one of the most important questions many young people face: Is going to college worth the cost? Even after colleges and universities opened their doors again, the doubt persisted. After years of skyrocketing expenses, many had hit a breaking point, questioning not just whether a degree was worth what is, for some, decades in debt, but also what it is we pay for when we pay for a college education.

The high cost of higher ed has long been rationalized as a down payment on a better future, an investment in skills that will translate into over a million dollars in additional lifetime earnings when compared to those with only a high school diploma. But as the return on investment declines, many young people are no longer buying that story.

Today, a majority of Americans—56 percent, according to a March survey from The Wall Street Journal —believe college is no longer worth the price. And yet, American policies and politics remain stuck in an era when a year of college cost a fraction of what it does today.

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Every year, millions of students decide to take out a mortgage on their futures because they believe it is the price they have to pay to access a plethora of jobs that would otherwise be inaccessible. But it is necessary to be considered for many of them. Higher education has long been treated as a placebo for deep inequalities, even as it has rapidly grown more unaffordable.

This line of thinking conveniently blames low earners without college degrees for their predicament and implicitly provides an argument against expanding the welfare state or raising the minimum wage. As the cost of college soared, many still clung on to the promise that the price was self-evidently worth it—even as tuition outpaced inflation several times over.

These universities were allowed to form a consensus on how financial aid packages were determined, thanks to a federal antitrust law signed by Bill Clinton in Once Black college graduates are in these positions, they have a harder time keeping up with their payments and are three times more likely to default. A study from Brandeis University found that, after two decades, the typical white borrower had just 6 percent of their loan balance remaining, whereas the typical Black borrower still owed 95 percent of their initial loan.

In other words, after 20 years of repayment, a typical white borrower was nearly finished, while Black borrowers had barely touched the principal. Student debt relief and large-scale public investment in universities that are committed to keeping costs down for students will undoubtedly be a huge part of addressing the student debt crisis.