Student
Debt Means Fewer Public Servants — and More Bankers
Collectively,
America’s student borrowers owe $1.7 trillion. On average, each graduating
senior this year is beginning their life around $37,000 in the hole.
That looks like a lot,
but when you’re living with student debt, you look at that number and don’t
even flinch.
The debt is so normal it’s like an inside joke for pretty much everyone in my generation. Except we’re the punch line.
The debt is so normal it’s like an inside joke for pretty much everyone in my generation. Except we’re the punch line.
I graduated class of
2015 from a private, liberal arts college — a “most selective” one, U.S.
News and World Report assures me.
It was also an expensive degree, Sallie Mae reminds me. Monthly.
It was also an expensive degree, Sallie Mae reminds me. Monthly.
Yes, I chose to go to
a private, expensive college. There was a calculus there, and one part of it
was “I liked the feeling of it.”
I know, this type of
sentimental idealism is a privilege. It’s no surprise I came out with the
equally sentimental notion that I wanted to do non-profit work — which
makes it that much harder to pay those loan bills.
It’s baffling to my
Filipino parents. They didn’t cross the ocean and consign themselves to discrimination
and demeaning jobs because they liked the “feel of it” — or even on the promise
that their lives would be better. They did it on the promise that my life
would be better. And that I wouldn’t owe anyone anything.
They could live
underwater, they decided — but they at least expected their children to take a
breath of fresh air. Well, sometimes it feels like the air is polluted. And the
water is teeming with loan sharks.
So much so that some
companies — among them many banks, financial institutions, and other large
for-profit businesses — have begun including student loan repayment assistance in
their salary packages.
I have to admit it’s
tempting, especially since the Trump administration wants to end a federal program that would forgive
the student loans of people who commit to public service work.
What’s the
alternative, after all?
Having a non-profit
career in something you care about can require years of barely remunerated
labor: an unpaid internship, volunteer work, a minimum-wage second job, or a
salary that barely meets the threshold for a living wage.
Prioritizing a career
in something you care about, in addition to paying rent and groceries, requires
consigning yourself to a debt you’ll live with until you have children. That
is, if you have children — since you don’t want to deal
with their student debt either.
It’s not surprising to
me that some of my classmates decide to return to school — maybe if they
add more letters to their degree they’ll magically land a job they’re
passionate about with a salary that can pay the bills.
It’s also not
surprising that some of my peers decide to join the other side, cashing in on
connections and scooping up those high-paying corporate jobs. But what happens
when you have a generation of people trained to enter the public service
entering Wall Street instead?
What a loss.
This is just one facet
of the student debt crisis — others include putting off starting a family or
buying a home. Too many of us are saddled with debt, and too many of us are
structuring our lives around this ledger.
Alyssa Aquino is a Next Leader at
the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org.