From Deseret News archives:
Student-loan debt soars
And rates on existing and new loans to jump July 1
And while he dreams of someday working in public policy, he's now putting in his hours as a business consultant to get a jump on the $15,000 in student debt he has accrued in the past four years.
Like Hunsaker, the average Utah student is also carrying thousands of dollars in debt after earning a four-year degree. Student debt is at an all-time high in Utah, and students are in for another shock come July 1 when interest rates on existing loans jump by 1.84 percent.
Rates on new loans issued after July 1 will also climb, to a fixed 6.8 percent from the current 5.3 percent.
That pending hike has Utah education leaders worried that the growing student-debt burden may be forcing students to bypass lower-income careers like teaching and social work to more quickly pay off their loans.
Perhaps even more worrisome, the rising interest rates, coupled with higher tuition, may be enough to price some Utah students out of an education altogether.
"There's some growing trends that because of the costs, people have to look at what is the major that's going to help me pay this back, which is not especially good for society," said David Feitz, associate executive director of the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority. "If somebody has $80,000 in debt and they have an MBA degree, we don't worry too much about them. But if they're going into elementary education, those borrowers are the ones we have concerns about."
Feitz attributes that increase mostly to annual tuition hikes. Total tuition and fees at the University of Utah, for example, have shot up more than 60 percent in the past 10 years.
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