Student loans have become a hot button issue in America today. With current loans outstanding totaling over $1.7 trillion, it’s easy to understand why people get worked up about them. It feels like an oppressive burden we could never possibly overcome.

The reality of the situation and my feelings about it are more nuanced and complex. Student loans help to provide a gateway to higher education and improved career outcomes for so many people in this country. That is certainly my story. I don’t know where I would have ended up without college and my loans. I’ve also gotten to a place after going to graduate school and working for several years where my loans feel much more manageable. They can be really scary right after you graduate and have to figure out your entire budget and may not be getting paid all that much. But a lot of the issues and hate towards student loans are due to other more systemic issues that have less to do with the student loans themselves.

Wages in this country have stagnated for far too long (the federal minimum wage hasn’t risen since 2009) and there is a dramatic wealth disparity as well. According to Pew Research, upper-income Americans hold 79% of aggregate wealth, meaning the rest of it is split between middle and low income Americans. These are the sort of factors that mitigate the positive impact of someone going to college and taking out student loans to do so. They just don’t have the resources to help stay above water with their loans and other obligations. Upper-income families can either pay out of pocket or easily manage the cost of any student loans they take out.

Also, I believe we need to do a far better job as a country and a higher education ecosystem to help students not have to solely rely on student loans as their only funding source. We need to increase the Pell Grant, make scholarships easier to come by and further invest in work study positions for institutions to use to help students lower their cost of attendance. 

Lastly, we need to work to ensure students are making informed decisions about what they’re studying, where, and how. Oftentimes, students are going to a school they think they are supposed to go to due to its “prestige” for a program that they aren’t clear on the outcomes for and end up paying way too much for, especially if they choose to study on campus. There is thankfully an increasingly prevalent number of resources for students to examine to better understand what the actual student experience is at a given institution and to see the outcomes students achieve with given majors. 

There are also other strategies to help manage paying back your student loans, such as income driven repayment plans or debt consolidation. Make sure to take the time to see more about what your options are so that you can live with your loans without drowning in them. I personally have benefitted over the years from using income driven repayment plans as I work to build my career and become more gainfully employed.

Student loans are not the enemy, but they do need to be utilized in a responsible fashion so that we collectively are making the right investment.