Education is supposed to give you a brighter future, but most graduates are trapped under piles of debts from the student loan system and the increasing college prices. This affects their credit scores and their major life decisions, snatching their dreams away.
There are 43 million Americans who are burdened with student loans, collectively $1.3 trillion. The average amount of student loan an individual has amounts to $29,000 for those attending a four-year college.
That number is even higher for students studying in private schools. Seven out of 10 seniors graduated with student loans in 2013.
Forbes.com takes Joseph Chanlatte as an example of how the student loan system has adversely affected the lives of the borrowers. Chanlatte's parents are educated people from Haiti, who transferred to America in the 1980s.
Despite his parents being educated, the educational system in America is too sophisticated that he still has to borrow $64,000 from federal loans and $10,000 worth of private loan.
Now that he is 37, and is a single father working at Dell, he earns $68,000 a year. But he still owes a whopping $89,000, which cripples his credit score and history.
Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton tries to capture the votes of the millennials by promising a better education financing system with her "New College Compact." This is now greatly debated, but if this system is properly implemented, there me be a bit of hope from this.
But for Chanlatte, the current student loan system has definitely shackled him financially. It hinders him from getting something as necessary as mortgages for a house and a new car to something as wonderful as getting an M.B.A. and his life dreams of travelling.
All he can say is, "I think the system educates us at all - not even enough, but at all."
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