Debt Nation: The Faces and Lives Behind America’s Student Loan Crisis

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A series of interviews about the incalculable costs of student loans on people’s lives.

. In some cases, their parents are becoming co-signers, turning student loan debt into a multigenerational albatross. The middle class, squeezed between the wealthy who can pay out of pocket and the families who qualify for greater financial aid, end up with more student loan debt on average than their peers from bothThe story of our national student debt crisis is one frequently told in numbers.

From those 700 emails, eight stories are featured below. What I learned in my hours of interviews is the weight of these numbers in people’s everyday lives. The shame so many feel when they look at the balance on their loans, the pride they take in their education, the dreams and life milestones deferred.

Some of the people featured here are decades into their careers; others are recent graduates, just starting down their professional paths. Some spoke about delaying parenthood because of the burden of their debt. One has kids who are already juggling their own student loans. Some have finally paid off every penny; some still have hundreds of thousands of dollars to go. I began talking to them long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and they are all lucky to still have work.

I keep thinking about the conversations I had with my own parents eight years ago. I think about how their unshakeable belief in the value of education meant assuming loans they will most likely die without having fully repaid. And how those loans still didn’t give them a life where they could send their children to school debt-free.

 

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