College is Not Affordable for Median Income Families
Today, the average college student graduates with a staggering amount of accumulated debt. Less than 20 percent of students are able to complete their post-secondary education without amassing some level of student loan debt. While college loans make higher education more accessible to a greater number of students, they also come with a fair amount of risk, and long-term implications.
The Scholarship Foundation has made it a mission to combat these staggering facts for over 30 years. Our philosophy is a young mind is a wonderful thing to invest in.
Did you know…
- Since 1982, tuition fees have increased by 439 percent while incomes have only gone up by 147 percent.
- In 1971, the tuition for a four year college was $428, which was 6.2 percent of the median income for family incomes.
- By 2012, average college tuition had grown to 26 percent of median income for a man and 41 percent of the median income for a woman (think of a woman as a single parent).
- Today total student debt exceeds $1.2 trillion with 40 million student borrowers who have an average debt of $29,000.
- This debt load is negatively impacting our society as “men and women laboring under student debt are postponing marriage child bearing, and home purchases…and limiting the percentage of young people who start business or do something entrepreneurial.” (Staggering Cost of Student Debt)
- Homeownership among Americans under 35 dropped from 43.3 percent in 1st Quarter 2005 to 34.6 in 1st Quarter 2015 as the student debt load disqualified their ability to obtain mortgage financing. (Staggering Cost of Student Debt)
- This is not just a young person’s issue, “in the past decade, people over 60 had the fastest growing educational loan balances of any age group going from $6 billion in 2004 to $58 billion in 2014″. Also, seniors have the highest default rate BUT “student loan debts can’t be discharged in bankruptcy and federal tax refunds and up to 15 percent of Social Security can be garnished”. (Staggering Cost of Student Debt)
- The three year loan default rate is around 13.7 percent with an average default rate per borrower estimated at $14,000 in 2014. (Staggering Cost of Student Debt)
- In 2012, full-time workers with a bachelor’s degree “earned 60 percent more than workers with just a high school diploma” (Staggering Cost of Student Debt).
- In 2015, the Washington State Legislature has passed a budget to reduce college tuition; however, college is still a family challenge – the all-in cost of attendance at UW Bothell is estimated at $27,586 (including tuition and room and board).
Join us in changing the story by writing the next chapter in education for Northshore students.
Make a difference by contributing to our Northshore Community Scholarship Fund.