Baldwin hears of student loan debt ‘crisis’ at UWGB

The challenges of college don’t end on graduation day, a group of University of Wisconsin-Green Bay students told U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Wednesday.

Student loan costs affect their lives years — and sometimes more than a decade — after they collect their diplomas.

Dan Terrio, who is pursuing a master’s degree in teaching, fears he might have to give up his dream of teaching in order to make enough money to cover the roughly $130,000 he expects to owe by the time he finishes school.

“I continually have to look at how I’m going to pay for the next semester,” he said. “I’m looking at a student loan bill of about $600 a month.”

Baldwin met Wednesday with about a dozen students at Mary Ann Cofrin Hall to discuss the growing cost of a higher education and its impact on the economic future of today’s students.

The Madison Democrat is co-sponsoring legislation to allow the nearly 40 million U.S. students with outstanding loans to refinance at the lower interest rates currently offered to new borrowers.

Baldwin said student debt in the U.S. grew by $31 million in the first three months of this year and now totals $1.2 trillion, making it the fastest-growing household debt category. About three of every four students in the University of Wisconsin System graduate with loans outstanding; the average debt totals $28,002.

High student-loan payments slow the economy because they make it difficult for young college graduates to buy houses and cars, she said.

“This is a crisis,” Baldwin told the group. “A college education should be a path to prosperity, not a path to indebtedness, but student loan debt is holding back an entire generation and creating a drag on economic growth for our country.

One graduate student said she lives with her fiance’s parents to save money. Another said her husband borrowed against his 401(k) so that the couple could afford day care for their children while she attends school.

Kim Dawson said she owes about $27,000 through the federal Stafford Loan program. When she tried to buy a $6,500 car, she needed her grandfather to co-sign because she would not have been able to get a loan on her own.

“I still don’t have a smartphone,” she said, “because I can’t afford the $80 a month.”