The new "must have" for college this fall: debt

The back-to-school flyers are starting to arrive in the newspapers and the American Progress Action Report has a summary of the 'gifts' Rep. Mark Green and his Republican colleagues are sending with college students across America as they start packing up their stuff to take with them to the dorm. They will be packing up a huge debt with that loft bed.

INCREASED COLLEGE COSTS LEAD TO MORE DEBT, FEWER CHOICES: The federal budget includes $137 billion for federal research and development programs, but that won't "mean a thing if students can't afford a college education or have to forgo research or teaching positions when they graduate due to school debts." Congress cut student aid by $12 billion in the most recent federal budget while interest rates on student loans climbed two percentage points July 1, the largest increase in history. The maximum Pell Grant has been frozen for four years at $4,050, which "barely covers a third of an annual public-college bill." Not surprisingly, two-thirds of all graduates of four-year colleges now finish with sizable loans. Public college graduates have an average $16,000 of debt, while private school graduates have an average $20,000. While approximately 200,000 Americans are priced out of higher education annually, prohibitive costs also affect choices students make when in school. "By reducing their financial barriers," said Jim Shelton of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, "you're allowing students to take on leadership roles on college campuses and spend more time focused on academics. Otherwise they would have been burdened with work or making lesser college choices." Even after college, high student debt is delaying pursuit of the American dream. "Since 1991, the number of students who delay buying their first house, having kids and getting married because of educational debt has gone up by 52 percent, 75 percent and 100 percent, respectively."