Running Head: STUDENT DEBT CRISIS 1

Student Debt Crisis Affecting Individuals in New York State

Written by- Samia Sara

City College of New York

Writing for Engineering

November 17, 2019

Draft 1
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Abstract

Years after college, student loans still haunt the lives of millions of students all over the United

States. Students who took out loans to pay for tuition are now burdened with thousands of dollars

worth of debt. As the student debt average continues to increase in our nation, the problem is

widened in states and cities as well. New York State is among the top 10 states with high college

debt. A study was conducted by surveying college students in New York State to analyze how

they feel about the current college tuition and high debt situation. Millennials are currently

struggling to survive in this economy and the loans from college are making sure that these

individuals do not receive a chance to improve their standard of living. From millennials to

current college students, a great deal of this demographic is having difficulties paying tuition for

education. To move forward without the burden of student debt, authorities would have to erase

the debt and dismantle the current system. This will allow them to create an educational system

that sides with students trying to receive an education, not as a means for school officials to

make money.
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Student Debt Crisis Affecting Individuals in New York State

In the United States, college and higher education are becoming increasingly necessary to

guarantee an idealized standard of living. As the cost of education is on the rise, going to college

now means going in debt for many individuals. Most students follow the usual steps to pay for

college, which consists of applying for grants from the government, private organizations, and/or

organizations from the colleges themselves. There are also loans provided by private institutions

and government-based organizations. Going beyond the usual options to pay for college, some

students get stuck paying expensive tuition with their credit cards. In the long run, most students

end up with more burdens than they did before starting school due to costly college tuition.

Shifting the conversation about student debt from one that assumes student loans are a

useful tool for improving an individual’s financial prospects in the future to one that

acknowledges that this ideology just correlates wealth to education. Society connects getting a

good education to one that involves a lot of money. Going off on this concept, it can be

understood how one might refer to college as an investment, but there are a lot more factors to

consider before reaching this stance. Students as young as seventeen years old feel compelled to

take loans of thousands of dollars before they even decide what they want to major in.

Furthermore, they stuck making a tremendous investment in one institution which determines

their future. These students are put under the same pressure as someone who received many

more years of experience before making an investment that holds such weight. The government

assumed that the student debt wouldn't be a problem because the students are expected to pay it

back in the future, but we’re seeing that is not the case. Contrary to what the loan was an

experiment on (that students would learn more real life experience if they deal with paying for
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classes) , most students feel that the student debt has impaired their progress to financial

stability. Individuals shouldn't have to bear the burden of a failed experiment placed forth by the

government just because they want to survive in the American economy.

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student debt now ranks second

in the most debt owed next to a home mortgage in the United States. Americans are now faced

with over 1 trillion dollars in student debt, with the expectancy of this number increasing at a

high rate. According to the Rockefeller Institute of Government, in New York State the average

student debt loan is approximately $30,000. Most colleges in New York expect students to pay

over $20,000 on just tuition per year. Keeping that in mind, even with the $15 minimum wage in

New York, a full-time worker is expected to make about only $25,000 a year. Just from these

statistics alone, one can easily identify how the numbers are not proportional. Owing money for

education is a pressing issue that is overly common in New York. According to a 2019 Student

Loan Protection Center research of the U.S. Department of Education, the total student loan debt

in the Empire State is more than $90 billion. To add to that, close to half of all millennials in

New York are currently in student debt. Just as mentioned before, this number is expected to go

only higher.

One would suspect that different failed programs and policies have made the federal

government the main reason behind the issue and that it’s up to the government to fix the

problem. Most of the rigorous research on what’s currently being done about this problem just

leads to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). PSLF is for government employees with

relatively low-paying careers like firefighting, military, nursing, teaching, public interest law,

etc. On top of that, one must make 10 years’ worth of payments while working for the
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government before applying for tax-free forgiveness. According to the Department of Education,

less than 1% of borrowers who have applied this service have had their loans discharged. The

author Ron Lieber(2018) describes in daunting details about the loan service in the United States.

Lieber expressed how the federal government had to set up another relief program for the

original relief program for the loans. He goes on to provide us with examples of how the system

is broken in this case. He successfully conveyed his message on how the relief program works;

in this case, it does not work.

New York State provides Federal Direct Loans which are education loans from the U.S.

government. These loans are either subsidized or unsubsidized. A subsidized Stafford loan is

awarded based on financial need. One will not be charged with any interest before they begin

repayment which starts six months after the individual graduates. On the other hand, the

unsubsidized Stafford Loan is not based on financial need. This form of loan charges interest

from the time the loan is disbursed until it is paid in full. Outside of these known programs, the

student debt crisis isn't being tackled.

Fortunately, the presidential candidates for 2020 have offered their insight on how to

demolish the student debt. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders plans to erase the country’s

$1.6 trillion outstanding student loan tab. The $2.2 trillion plan would be paid for by a new tax

on financial transactions, including a 0.5 percent tax on stock transactions and a 0.1 percent tax

on bond sales. That would raise to $2.4 trillion over the next decade, according to the senator’s

office. Under Elizabeth Warren’s proposal, borrowers with household incomes less than

$100,000 would get $50,000 of their student debt forgiven. Other candidates have similar ideas,

Candidate Andrew Yang, however, has a different method to tackle this problem. He proposes to
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start a minimum wage for all citizens over the age of 18 by giving them $1,000 monthly. Yang

wants to tax big business corporations like Amazon and Netflix who paid no tax for the past year

and bring the money to the pockets of citizens and not in a pile for the government. The

minimum wage idea was well known by Abraham Lincoln and by activists like Martin Luther

King Jr. Although this solution isn’t directed to solve the debt crisis, it would act as a force to

keep a boot out of students’ throat when it came to financial stability.

In order to discover another approach to this issue, a survey was conducted with current

college students in New York State to determine their experience paying tuition. Information was

logged in from students about their college finances. On top of that, several questions to this

demographic group about how they feel about this situation were asked. The reason behind it

was to determine if the high student debt affected anyone in any way or if they even care about

this situation.

Methods

A survey was conducted to determine how college students in New York State handle

paying for college and how they feel about such ways. It consisted of ten questions in the Google

Forms website around the student debt topic. The questions varied from asking the age of the

surveyee to how they feel about the current crisis on student debt. The survey started by asking

how much tuition is, how the student pays for it and went on to explore how they feel about the

college education program. The questions were sent out to colleagues who are college students

over the age of 17, to former high school classmates who attend school in New York State, and

from students in the City College library. After weeks of conducting this survey, there were 77

responses from students over the age of 17 that attend a college in New York State. One thing
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that stayed in mind while the survey was to keep clear of making my questions or method of

approaching biased in any way. This was successfully avoided by the survey randomly picking

people to answer the questions and by only asking relevant questions for my research.

Results

The purpose of the survey was to get a clear view of how much college tuition was for

students and how much of it is being taken care of by the government. On top of that, the survey

was dedicated to understanding how college students feel towards this higher level of education

and whether or not they agree with the government's current educational system. Most of the

surveyees were either 18 or 19 years old but the age limit went from 18 to older than 22. From

my surveyees, 62.3% of those who answered had to pay anywhere from $1-$10,000 per year for

their college tuition. Also, 26% of the overall surveyees receive nothing from Financial Aid.

There was a tie of 32.5% between agreeing and neutral feelings when asked about how the

students felt about a statement that discloses that college is worth attending in the United States.

Most of the students expressed why they felt that way following the previous statement. Students

answered by stating that most respected jobs require a degree so it’s sort of mandatory to attend

college. On the other hand, an anonymous individual from the survey expressed, “there’s plenty

you can do without a degree”. Going back, most of the students in the survey are attending

college because they believe a degree will help them receive access to a higher paying job. One

of the students stated the “education system needs to be looked at and corrected”.

The answers received for certain questions varied from person to person. One individual

noted that he/she feels that college is a foundation for the next part of their life and it is

something necessary for someone to grow into an adult. While that is, another person expressed
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how people are forced into paying a substantial amount of money to receive mediocre education

which has a high chance of not having a job for that person. Some of the students that sided with

not favoring the college education system mentioned other countries that provide free college

like Germany. One particular answer that stood out was someone expressing “It gives us a

degree, it doesn't prepare us for a career or how to get one. It places youth under debt and

constant stress”.

Overall, most of the surveyees sympathized with their college acquaintances on the topic

of expensive tuition. Next, individuals were assigned to express how they feel about a statement

which notes that paying for college is a struggle for the surveyee. From that question, 22.1%

strongly agreed, 16.9% agreed, and 36.4% felt neutral. All these numbers outweigh the

individuals that feel otherwise. Following, the survey asked if the students agree with the

government getting involved in solving the high student debt to which 75.3% of the students

agreed to. It is noted that some information from the survey was excluded to avoid the repetition

of answers.

Discussion

During college, students usually worry about three major life factors - having to graduate

with a decent GPA, finding a job and paying their debt off. When it comes down to it, most

individuals answered the question of whether college was needed by stating it was an investment

because they believe it will open more job opportunities. Emphasis on “job opportunities”

because only then can the situation be seen as something bigger. It has been normalized in this

society to go to college in hopes of getting a higher paying job and not for the mere reason of

learning. Students overpay to go to a college and suffer for years only for broader job
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opportunities; never receiving the real education the American government is so proud of. To

add on, the graduation rate of receiving a degree after 4 years of college is only 12% in City

College of New York in the past year. Also note, after 4 years, students do not receive financial

aid. On another note, most students don’t even get a job under the degree they studied for. The

college ideology has turned into being all about the money and not education. When you look at

the data and how the education system is set up one can conclude that it was never really about

education but rather a corporate level scheme which no student that wants to survive in this

economy can overcome.

From the survey data, it has been noted that 59.7% of the students who took the survey

believed that high debt should be canceled. As previously mentioned, 75.3% of students from the

survey thinks that debt is such a problem that the government needs to get involved more.

America’s student debt is growing slowly, if not exponentially. Since the Recession, student debt

has been a problem that couldn't be overlooked. After the recession, state funding had recovered

and the debt looked a little more promising. Still, the debt situation has only half-way recovered

and the reliance on loans for college is still very high.

Most of the students in the research agree that college tuition is too high and they fear not

being able to find a job if they do not receive a degree. Since this is a complicated situation, the

system should be rebuilt to avoid future mistakes like such. For the system to reconstruct, the

federal government should erase all the current debt and come up with a system that will promise

students a higher education and not an investment place. To achieve that, the federal government

might need to lower tuition or demolish it and then focus on the educational curriculum of

college more than the financial. Many students will agree with this solution based on the
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research. One flaw from the experiment might be the fact that it did not consist of over 100

people so the subject number might be a problem. The survey also did not ask questions that

were too detailed in fear of students not responding truthfully. While writing this paper, it was

noticed how asking more questions could have strengthened the stance. For future references,

more information should be gathered and questions should be more vivid.

Conclusion

The nation’s attention should be fixated on how to demolish such a high student debt.

New York State is undergoing a problem which the government needs to get involved more.

With high tuition, high cost of living, and minimal education, many individuals would feel

college is tough in the United States. Even if they were to feel that way, individuals are still

sucked into attending and overspending on college because without it, the economy would not let

them thrive in this society. At this rate, it can only be concluded how the current system of a

college education isn’t working for everyone. To thoroughly knock down this crisis, the

government should evaluate the current system and come up with a solution that will cover every

student.
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Reference List

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Slowly. ​New York Times.​ Retrieved from​ h​ ttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/your

-money/student-debt-what-to-do.html​.

Carrns, A. (2019). As College Debt Rises, So Does Interest in Teaching Financial Literacy. ​New

York Times. ​Retrieved from ​https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/26/your-money/student

-loan-debt-financial-literacy.html​.

Lieber, R. (2018). The Public Student Loan Forgiveness Rescue Hasn't Gone Well So Far. ​New

York Times. ​Retrieved from ​https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/your-money/public

-service-loan-forgiveness.html

Miller, B., Campbell, C., Cohen, B. J., & Hancock, C. (2019). Addressing the $1.5 Trillion in

Federal Student Loan Debt. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/

education-postsecondary/reports/2019/06/12/470893/addressing-1-5-trillion-federal-stude

nt-loan-debt/.

Nova, A. (2019). Where the 2020 Democratic candidates stand on student debt. ​CNBC.

Retrieved from ​https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/21/what-the-2020-candidates-are

-proposing-to-do-about-student-debt.html​.