In case anyone needed additional information to counter the Brookings-fed meme that “Americans who borrowed to finance their education are no worse off today than they were a generation ago”, theU.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report yesterday with some significant findings. As reported at Inside Higher Ed by Michael Stratford:
More than 700,000 households headed by Americans 65 or older now carry student debt, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. And the amount of debt owed by borrowers 65 and older jumped from $2.8 billion in 2005 to $18.2 billion last year. [snip]
Between 2004 and 2010, for instance, the number of households headed by individuals 65 to 74 with student loan debt more than quadrupled, going from 1 percent to 4 percent of all such families. During that same period, the rate of borrowing among Americans under 44 years old increased between 40 and 80 percent, even though borrowing among that age group is far more prevalent than it is among senior citizens.
I have been highly critical of the Brookings Institutions and their report and update. This new information from the GAO goes outside the selective Brookings data set of households headed by people aged 20 – 40, but it should be considered by anyone trying to draw conclusions about student debt holders.
Noting that Brookings analysis is based on “Americans who borrowed to finance their education” and the GAO report is on student debt holders, it is worth asking if we’re looking at a similar definition. For the most part, yes, as explained at IHE:
While some of the debt reflects loans taken out by parents on behalf of their children, the vast majority — roughly 70 to 80 percent of the outstanding debt — is attributable to the borrowers’ own education. Parent PLUS loans accounted for only about 27 percent of the student debt held by borrowers 50 to 64 years old, and an even smaller share for borrowers over 65.
Go read at least the entire IHE article, if not the entire GAO report.
Student debt is a growing problem in the US, and the Brookings Institution conclusions are misleading at best.
