Survey of $1.5 Trillion Student Loan Debt
by State: South Dakota Most Debt,
Utah Least

Wallet Hub’s methodology is described at the end of this article.

A very poor headline and a very poor explanation. South Dakota cannot possibly have the most debt. Perhaps they meant the most per person. But no. That was Connecticut. So what exactly are they measuring? I have no idea.

For those unhappy with the article, here is the material on which it is based. Very detailed. https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-student-debt/7520/

Here is a method that will recover some of the debt, get the little darliings out of mom and dads basement, and put the folks back to work. Lets launch the Student Loans Peace Corp, we put them to work at the Mexican border. The USA will deduct $10,000 per year until debt is satisfied. Those not wishing to join the Peace Corp, their loans go out for collection. There, that should fix some of the student debt mess.

What will I do next, first I am responsible for every deed someone commits, now I am responsible for the debt of another person. Give me a break.

So, we have handed our universities $1.5 trillion. What is there to show for it? I'd like them to return some of that money.

Sorry for second post, but the government should get out of the student loan business. College tuition should be the responsibility of the student and their parents, not the American tax payer.

Grove City College, after being sued by the federal government over Title IX issues, turned down all forms of federal support, and now lends money to students out of its own cash reserves. Expect student loan de3fault rates, elsewhere, to escalate because the former students will delay making payments, hoping that the ridiculous proposals by democrat presidential candidates will come true, and their student loan debt will be forgiven. And before some of you people blame professor pay and benefits for escalating college costs, you are wrong. Most colleges and universities. bowing to the federal government, have established 'diversity' bureaucracies. That costs money - big money. Those schools have also expanded women's sports in order to comply with the mandatory ratios/formulas imposed by the federal government. That costs money - big money. Sports scholarships have become just plain silly. And someone has to pay. Finally, building fancy dorms with suites instead of rooms has added immensely to the cost of school. Schools said they had to build the fancy dorms because students demanded that. But the new dorms are too expensive for students - unless they choose to BORROW MORE STUDENT LOAN MONEY! See how that works? And to make sure that students don't escape the high costs of dorm living, one local college in Erie, Pa is making it mandatory for students to live in dorms, not live off campus. That might be prudent for a college, or it could be the final money grab to stave off financial doom.

#8 when I was in college, students that lived beyond a certain radius from the campus were required to live in the dorms if they were under twenty-one years of age. The reason: the university had sold bonds to build the dormitories and full occupancy was required to assure that the revenue was there for debt service on those bonds. The dorm where I lived has since been razed and another academic building constructed on the site.

So, the state with one area code as the highest debt?

I think the South Dakota ranking is distorted. They factor in jobs for student work study programs to come up with the ranking, and SD is near the bottom in that category. According to Wikipedia there are only 22 colleges in the entire state.

College debt has one cause. As soon as it became apparent that the gub MINT was paying, the colleges raised the price. Now the Dems want to pay off their doctrinaires. My progeny who just paid off their student loans are hysterical to the point of questioning socialism.

In the Us, during 2018 there were about 5.6 million students enrolled. Of that number, about 1.4 million were foreign students, who we would want to assume do not get U.S. Taxpayer backed student loans. That leaves about 4.2 million American students in the loan eligibility status per year. Making a long story short, about 44 million student loan debtors owe about $39,500.00 each on average. The big question is "Why has this amount of debt been allowed to go uncollected?" According to Federal stats, non-degree people only average $35,256.00 per year (before taxes0 and the professional college-degreed people average $89,960.00 per year. I can buy a brand new $39,000.00 car, make $700.00 a month payments and have it paid clear in 60 months. What the hell is wrong that 44 million grads, who now earn at 5 years plus from their graduation, more than $120,000.00 a year, have been allowed to linger without paying this debt down hardly at all? Time for Uncle Sammy to quit being a sucker. Collect the damned debt already! Slap some liens on half-million-dollar houses and I bet this debt would clear up in five years easy!

I would suspect the reason South Dakota has the students with the highest debt is the same reason that South Dakota has one of the poorest counties in the United States. The crushing poverty and the hopelessness of the Indian reservations is oppressive. The students are not prepared for college, there are no job opportunities should they drop out, and if they graduate, there's not a lot of job opportunities. The second state on the list, Pennsylvania, has the same unprepared and poor populations coming from places like Chester who enroll and are completely unprepared and have little hope after they graduate, leave, or flunk-out. The story of Cheyney State (the first black college in the US) and its current financial condition is heartbreaking. It is an example of continually lowering academic standards until they don't mean anything - just to get kids into the college. Then, once there, they can't even handle the lowered standards. This is not to problem of the students. It is a problem of the democrat-run teachers unions, the "community organizers", and the democrat run school boards that just want to move the kids out, have no discipline, and maintain the soft bigotry of low expectations. Sorry, rant off.

If high school seniors were required to do a return on investment analysis on different college majors, a third of college courses would be canceled, fewer HS graduates would attend major universities, and attendance at community colleges and trade schools would soar.

Hang on a minute. I thought it was the RESPONSIBILITY of every adult PARENT to have a college saving plan for their children. Why are these people borrowing money?

Is the G.I. Bill not available any more? One help would be prohibiting federal loans to private colleges. If you need a loan, then don't go to an outrageously expensive school. Live at home and do your first two years at a community college. Or get a private loan or a grant from that well endowed school. And parents who expect to send their children to college should save rather than living a lavish life style.

It is a tradition in my family to provide a debt-free bachelor's degree. My kids earned substantial academic scholarships but my spouse and I picked up the rest of the cost. Our children went to state schools and the tuition cost was not outrageous. It is not my job to worry about how some starry eyed kid and his stupid parents will pay for that Third-World Victimhood Studies degree from Harvard.

I have no sympathy for these debtors. If they're stupid enough to get a degree in worthless disciplines AKA participation degrees and are willing to take out loans for indoctrination, then too bad. I shouldn't have to pay to bail them out. Get a job, you worthless leeches.