{"id":14879,"date":"2012-11-13T15:20:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T20:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=14879"},"modified":"2012-11-13T15:20:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T20:20:15","slug":"why-rising-student-debt-isnt-as-big-a-problem-as-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/11\/13\/why-rising-student-debt-isnt-as-big-a-problem-as-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Rising Student Debt Isn’t As Big A Problem As You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gina Jordan\/StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Dr. Ed Moore is president of the Independent Colleges & Universities of Florida.<\/p><\/div>\n

College tuition is steadily rising<\/a> in Florida, but at least one expert says the issue of student debt is being blown out of proportion.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ed Moore is president of the Independent Colleges & Universities of Florida. He is also on the Higher Education Coordinating Council<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He and six other council members are charged with making recommendations to the Florida Legislature and education leaders regarding new degree programs and institutions.<\/p>\n

At today\u2019s council meeting, Moore gave a presentation titled \u201cThe Reality of Student Debt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>In a nutshell, what in your view is the reality of student debt?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>The reality is that it\u2019s not as big of a story as the national media and some would have you believe. But it\u2019s certainly an issue of concern.<\/p>\n

The rising cost of attending college has had a lot of impact, but there are so many other factors that have driven student debt that it\u2019s not just pure cost.<\/p>\n

Student debt (has) remained relatively constant as a percentage of the total American debt. It\u2019s not as scary a picture as some would believe.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>From your vantage point, what is the biggest problem behind the debt that needs to be dealt with?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I think we need to be looking at student default rates more than the gross amount that students are borrowing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On average, the amount that students borrowed last year from all sectors in higher education went up about $400 or so from the year prior. Not a real significant bump.<\/p>\n

The total average debt is about the same cost as going out and buying a brand new Ford Taurus. So if you think of it in terms of relative investment, a student that\u2019s going to go out and borrow $26-thousand — it\u2019s the only thing they\u2019ll ever really do that truly invests in themselves and gives them guaranteed earning power for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

Students defaulting, particularly students that end up defaulting without degrees should be the real focus. Why are they defaulting? Are they picking schools that aren\u2019t keeping them there; are they unemployed?<\/p>\n

In large degree, it\u2019s due to the rise over the last decade of the for-profit sector. Their numbers are significantly higher in loan default rates.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Why are so many students defaulting without even finishing their degrees?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>Students end up not finishing for so many reasons \u2013 family matters, jobs, they run out of money. I would look and see — is it a particular institution or a sector in higher education that is enrolling students that borrow and then don’t finish more so than in others.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the borrowing. More than 50 percent of students end up owing less than $20-thousand, for example. That\u2019s not a significant burden to have a college degree. There\u2019s tremendous value in having that degree.<\/p>\n

People with college degrees make more money than people without college degrees in their lifetime. People with college degrees are more likely in this kind of economy to be employed as opposed to unemployed. So there\u2019s value.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an investment in self. Anytime we can encourage people to invest in themselves, that\u2019s a great thing.<\/p>\n

There needs to be some constraint about borrowing crazily, getting into high debt and managing that better. As a matter of public policy, I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking at. It\u2019s getting a little more controls on who\u2019s going into debt and why.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Did you see anything promising in the Governor\u2019s Blue Ribbon Task Force<\/a> Final Report?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>The focus there on the funding end of things was more on differential tuition and tuition rates. Certainly, cost is a factor that drives debt.<\/p>\n

So if the state and public side starts adjusting tuition rates<\/a>\u2026that is going to have an impact on student borrowing.<\/p>\n

A significant number of Florida students, though, make it through without borrowing anything at all.<\/p>\n

When you look at average debt levels of graduates, it works out to less than $2000 a year debt difference between somebody who goes to a private institution as opposed to somebody who goes to a public institution.<\/p>\n

Students borrow relatively the same amounts of money regardless of the institution they go to mainly because it\u2019s the cost of living that gets them much more so than the cost of tuition.<\/p>\n

Q: <\/span>Has the council discussed solutions for tackling student debt?<\/p>\n

A: <\/span>I did a comparative analysis on student debt as opposed to household debt, credit card debt, and mortgage debt, just to put it in relative terms.<\/p>\n

I think as we move forward in the Higher Education Coordinating Council looking at issues of value, cost and long-term implications of how we fund higher education, keeping in mind where the money is being spent and how it\u2019s being spent is going to be real important to us.<\/p>\n

Higher education is an investment in yourself. I would encourage readers \u2013 don\u2019t get so focused on (having to) borrow $5000 or even $10,000 a year.<\/p>\n

The reality is people come out of college and usually go right into debt buying a new car or investing in a business. They\u2019re investing in themselves when they get an education, and I would encourage them to really spend time evaluating what it is that they\u2019re doing going to college and get the most out of that educational opportunity.<\/p>\n

People should be aware going in \u2013 what are they going to study and what are the implications of the time and money they\u2019re going to spend.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

College tuition is steadily rising in Florida, but at least one expert says the issue of student debt is being blown out of proportion. Dr. Ed Moore is president of the Independent Colleges & Universities of Florida. He is also on the Higher Education Coordinating Council. He and six other council members are charged with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1104,1167,1141],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14887,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14879\/revisions\/14887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}