In higher education Pennsylvania ranks No. 1! … well, at least in the amount of student debt that the state’s students carry.
A recent analysis by the personal finance website WalletHub found that the state ranked third nationally in average student debt, fifth in the percentage of students with debt, sixth in student debt as a percentage of income, seventh in the percentage of student loans past due or in default, 23rd in the availability of student jobs, 18th in unemployment rate for the 25-34 age group, and 12th in the availability of grants to offset tuition costs. Together, those factors gave Pennsylvania the worst ranking in the survey of all 50 states.
Other surveys have found that Pennsylvania ranks 47th among the states in per-capita state support for public higher education, which clearly translates into the high debt loads carried by students and alumni.
Meanwhile, legislators have doubled down on that irresponsibility by taking long summer recesses without approving more than
$600 million for Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities and the University of Pittsburgh, that those institutions use to provide tuition discounts for in-state students. The Senate will not return until Sept. 18 and the House won’t reconvene until Sept. 26, when all of those institutions are well into their fall semesters.
Pennsylvania politicians who oppose student-debt relief often grandly invoke the “moral hazard” that they say is inherent in debt forgiveness. Then they refuse to reform the “ Delaware loophole” that enables some of the world’s wealthiest corporations to evade state taxes, provide more than $4 billion in tax credits to corporations to use natural gas, and otherwise ensure that their favorite special interests don’t bear the same sorts of financial burdens that affect college students and their families.
Lawmakers should use their unduly long recesses to recognize that public higher education is a vast public good rather than simply a burden, and resolve to end the state’s status as No. 1 in student debt.
— Tribune News Service
