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Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

Cheated by student loans

Graduates
Students attend graduation ceremonies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Student loans are the fastest growing segment of household debt in the United States.
Butch Dill | AP 2011

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The numbers stagger. Student loans are the fastest growing segment of household debt in the United States; only mortgages are larger. About 42 million Americans collectively carry $1.3 trillion in student debt. The average 2016 graduate carries around $37,000 in loans. The weight is crushing: Young people are putting off marriage, buying a home or even having children.

No one thinks this is a good thing. But what do we do about it?

Are the loans a fair trade-off for what college graduates get? What happens to the economy when loans default? And are government-run loan forgiveness programs an answer — or part of the problem? MPR News host Kerri Miller was joined by two experts to talk about the student debt crisis.

Guests:
Julie Margetta Morgan is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, specializing in college affordability and finance issues

Fenaba Addo, assistant professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.