Released: April 01, 2012

Student debt grows to alarming levels

Source: Consumer Reports

Mortgage foreclosures and credit-card debt have drawn the spotlight since the financial collapse of 2008. But there’s another type of debt that could have potentially crippling ramifications for the U.S. economy: student debt. How bad is it? The amount of student debt owed by Americans exceeded outstanding credit-card debt for the first time in 2010. Two-thirds of college graduates carried some debt at commencement, and the Class of 2010 had an average of $25,250 in student debt, up 5 percent from the previous year, according to The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), a nonprofit policy research group in Oakland, Calif. All in all, it’s estimated that Americans owe more than $900 billion in federal and private loans.

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