Are liberals ruining U.S. higher education?

Liberal professors and administrators operate the vast majority of American colleges and universities.  Why are these progressives saddling graduates with staggering debt that essentially puts them at a huge disadvantage upon graduation?

Rising student loan debt in the United States could ultimately hurt overall home ownership and consumer spending and erode colleges’ and universities’ ability to elevate lower-income students, a top Federal Reserve policymaker said on Monday.

New York Fed President William Dudley, an influential monetary policymaker who was citing research from his institution, pointed to rising costs of higher education and student debt burdens as culprits in the troubling trend.

Overall U.S. household debt is expected to surpass its pre-recession high later this year. Proportionally, Americans have shifted away from housing-related debt and toward auto and student loan debt, with aggregate student loan balances $1.3 trillion at the end of last year, up 170 percent from 2006.

Source: Debt load could snag students, hurt U.S. economy: Fed’s Dudley | Reuters

The situation just got worse for student loan borrowers with six-figure debts.

The number of borrowers with balances over $100,000 has more than quadrupled in the last 10 years, according to data released Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The default rate of borrowers with high balances “appears to have deteriorated over time,” Donghoon Lee, a research officer at the NYFed, said during a press briefing with reporters.

In 2016, borrowers with $100,000 in student loans or more make up just 5% of borrowers, but account for about 30% of total outstanding student debt, the data show. What’s more, these borrowers appear to be struggling more than they have in recent years.

Source: MarketWatch