Soaring Student Loan Debt Poses Risk to Nations Future

From the LA Times:

The amount of outstanding student loans has skyrocketed 76% to almost $1.2 trillion since 2009 as college costs have shot up and graduates have had difficulty finding good-paying jobs. Before the Great Recession, total outstanding student loans ranked well below mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and home equity lines of credit as sources of household debt. Now it trails only mortgage debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

So it’s not surprising that when Gallup asked parents this year to name their biggest financial worry, paying for their children’s college education topped the list.

“We’re essentially running a higher-education system here that is not sustainable,” said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. “It’s kind of a runaway train.”

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-student-debt-20150906-story.html