College Debt: Less is More

In 2007, I graduated from a 4-year private university. I came from an upper middle class family in California that made enough to afford a house payment, car payments, car insurance, health insurance, life insurance, and other general odds, ends and occasional wants. But we didn't have $45,000 per year for college tuition. With our financial system the way it is, and the way need-based help is calculated, it was decided that my family had an extra $25,000 to spare towards tuition. Now with more loans then I could imagine and interest accumulating, I owe more money then I will make in my first and maybe even second year out of college.

Recently the thought hit me--could my vote make a difference in how much debt I found myself in? The answer is yes.

This Congress, elected during a year of unprecedented high young voter turnout, is working to make life easier on graduates:

In September 2007, the Congress enacted the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (PL 110-84), which makes college more affordable and provides the largest expansion in college aid since the GI Bill in 1944. Specifically, this Act provides more than $20 billion in federal student aid over the next five years and provides that interest rates on need-based (subsidized) federal student loans will drop from 6.8% to 6.0% on July 1st – making these loans more affordable for millions of low- and middle-income students. This is the first step towards halving these interest rates – under the Act, between now and 2011, these rates will continue to decrease until they reach 3.4%.

For the 2008-2009 academic year, in addition to the interest rate being cut to 6.0%, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act will also:

• Increase the Pell Grant scholarship by $490 (raising the maximum award to $4,731).
• Provide up-front tuition assistance of $4,000 each year for students who commit to teaching high-need subjects in high-need public schools upon graduation.

-- Tom Manatos, advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

It's nice to see how my vote in 2006, and the votes of thousands of other young people, have established a congress that is working for our interests. So the question stands, why are you voting?

Eroding Wages for College Graduates

With the school year coming to an end, college graduates will soon be hitting the job market. The good news is that the employment rate for young, educated workers is rising. The bad news is pay continues to decline.

The latest Snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute, illustrates how the labor market for young college grads, ages 25 to 35, is slowly improving, but remains weaker than before the last recession six years ago. “Young college graduates are still facing lower real wages than they did six years ago,” says economist Elise Gould.

After a slight rise in real hourly wages among young college graduates in 2005, their wages fell again in 2006, continuing an otherwise downward trend since 2001.




"There appear to be jobs, however, these workers seem to have little bargaining power to bid up their wages. It is possible that these workers are underemployed or there is a job quality problem, as exemplified by the low rate of employer-provided health insurance," writes Elise Gould.