Doing Away With Debt

Abstract

America’s financial-aid system has become almost impossible to navigate and burdensome for those who need it most. Tuition and fees rise unabated, forcing almost half of college going students to borrow. Low and middle-income students are taking on frightening levels of debt. Bachelor’s degree recipients who borrow leave school with an average of $26,600 in debt, often substantially more, and over 100,000 students are shut out of college each year with cost acting as a major limiting factor. We must and can do better for students willing to work hard to learn their way into the middle class. In this report, The Education Trust proposes a college aid redesign – consolidating and targeting at least 10 grant, loan, and higher education related tax programs – separate from the Pell Grant program – to finance a “no debt” guarantee to students from low-income families and a “no interest loan” guarantee to students from middle and upper-middle income families. Reallocated funds would flow to states for distribution to their institutions of higher education and high schools to increase college completion, reduce student debt, and close education opportunity gaps.