The numbers are staggering and the subject as political as it is economic. In 2019, some 45 million Americans were accumulating $ 1.6 trillion (1,482 billion euros) in debt owed to pay for higher education. This amount, multiplied by almost 3 in the space of 12 years, is much higher than the debt linked to credit cards (about 1,000 billion).
Upon graduation, each borrower owes on average $ 32,000. This constantly increasing amount (+ 20% since 2016, according to the Federal Reserve) represents a serious obstacle to start serenely in life: banks are reluctant to grant new loans to these customers for the purchase of housing or a car. And many young people can not count on their parents, some of whom are still paying for their own studies or have borrowed to finance their children's education, an average of $ 37,000 in federal loans for this purpose.
This typically American phenomenon is linked to the prohibitive and increasing cost of university registration fees: it takes a few thousand dollars a year in community colleges for diplomas in two years, to several tens of thousands of dollars for public or private universities delivering diplomas in four years (fees can be reduced by means of grants and various aids for the most modest young people).
Payment defaults
Result: 7 out of 10 students aiming for a bachelor (equivalent to a bachelor's degree) had to go into debt in 2019. This practice undermines families' room for maneuver and weakens the economy. If the return on investment is guaranteed during periods of economic growth – graduates integrate properly into the job market – the situation is more worrying in the event of jolts, such as the great depression of 2008-2009, which has seen a sharp rise in defaults, or the current health and economic crisis. The Trump administration has accepted a three-month suspension of reimbursements without charge.
Among the Democrats, this nagging question is tackled more generally. The left wing of the party would like to erase the debt and introduce free education, at least during the first two years. Joe Biden, who became the Democratic candidate in April, is less daring, but still proposes to erase the debt of graduates from low-income and middle-class families. It also undertakes to assume responsibility, each year, for $ 10,000 of the debt of persons working in certain service trades, such as education. Candidate Trump has no such plans. On the contrary, it has eliminated debt cancellation programs and lengthened the debt cancellation periods for the most highly qualified; but it reduced this period from 20 to 15 years for the less qualified.
