Student Loan Crisis in the United States – The Solution

With a whopping $1.6 trillion outstanding student loan, the US economy is on the verge of collapse. Considering the continuous growth of student loans since the Great Recession period, experts claim that the delinquency rate of student loan debt could soon get doubled. It can be a major threat to the financial security of millions of individuals belonging to low- or moderate-income households and the nation’s economy. 

Due to the mounting debts, student borrowers are struggling and even experiencing serious mental health issues. However, with some useful measures in effect, the state government can curb the overall impact of the student loan crisis. 

In the previous blog, we discussed the problems of Student Loan Crisis in the United States. Now, we in this blog are suggesting a few possible solutions for the problem of the ever-increasing student loan crisis in the USA.

Considerable Solutions for Student Loan Crisis in the United States

There are numerous things that colleges and employers can do to address the rising debt burdens of students and can help lower-income borrowers. Let’s have a look at the possible solutions to student loans:

• As the education system is too expensive, private colleges and universities should limit the rate of tuition fees so that everyone can afford higher education without heavily relying on student loans company, thus minimizing the strain on the federal student loan program.
• Colleges & universities should increase tuition waivers for low-income students.
• There should be a restriction on access to federal loans for private & public education institutions with poor learning outcomes for students.
• The federal loan system should streamline the student loan repayment schemes and refinancing loans and create more flexible income-based repayment policies for existing borrowers.
• The government must facilitate low-income students to use financial aid to cover their living expenses.
• US employers can also play a significant role in fixing the student loan crisis in the USA by refining their hiring process. Companies should look for competency in their prospective employees than emphasizing college degrees. It will shift students’ focus to acquiring new skills and becoming competent through the internet, on-the-job training, apprenticeship programs, or online bootcamps, instead of enrolling in a university and paying high fees through student loans.

The devastating condition of the student loan crisis in the USA calls for huge reformative action in the education system since the biggest reason for the increasing student loan crisis in the USA is the high cost of a college degree with the additional annual raise in tuition, board, room, books, & other expenses. It makes a higher degree beyond the reach of moderate-income families and overburdens students with huge loans.

Students hold the power to bring the needed change in the colleges. With collective measures, students can enforce higher education establishments to cut down the redundant cost of pursuing a degree. Moreover, students can delay college enrollment for a year or two, wherein they can work, travel, or volunteer internships. It will have a massive impact on the colleges with a deprived student fee revenue. Therefore, they will have no option but to cut administrative costs, minimize spending across the board, & eliminate costly programs.

What can the Government do to Mitigate Student Debt Crisis?

The state government has the supreme authority to change the entire fee structure and bring some positive development in restoring the condition of student borrowers. Here are some essential factors through which the government can regulate the situation:

• State government officials and governors can reduce the cost of attending college by enlarging low-cost & free degree programs. The government must offer more tuition assistance to students from low-income backgrounds and students of color.
• Another way in which the government can protect student borrowers is by checking up with lenders and offering student loan forgiveness to borrowers who were not able to complete their degrees to re-enroll.
• The state government can lower the existing debt burdens on students by providing tax credits, sponsoring refinancing plans, or student loan forgiveness to the students serving public sectors, such as education, healthcare, etc.
• The government should ensure that new grads get enough jobs for student loan repayment. For this reason, government officials must impose some rules on tech companies to hire a certain percentage of new college graduates since there are around 2.3 million jobs in the IT sector.

Take the example of India and China, where higher education is subsidized by the government & colleges are much cheaper than in the USA. Besides, the best universities in India run publicly, whereas a majority of US universities are private. So, what other countries are doing right and the US government is doing wrong? Why do foreign workers from India & China take over the jobs at higher salaries even if the US citizens remain unemployed?

Also, Read: Why Do Tech Companies Not Hire Recent Computer Science Graduates?

• Despite having the world’s largest economy, the US has a higher dependency on foreign workers. In order to improve the situation & reduce foreign hiring, the country should invest in education to get their citizens trained, educated, & qualified for the jobs being generated in the USA.
• Besides ads like no smoking or no drugs, there should be ads to get educated. The government should run ad campaigns to inspire young people to pursue the right training & education to attain great job offers. Also, the parents should encourage their kids to take the course that can help them get hired.
• Colleges and grants to colleges should be based on their job placement rate rather than their graduation rates.
• America needs to focus more on STEM funding from the primary school itself as the mind is the most important resource which they need to nurture.
• Rather than giving unemployment benefits to citizens of America or providing loans at a low rate of interest, the government should make higher education completely free as that will lead to a new generation of Americans who will be educated to compete technically with anyone in the world. The government needs to adopt the saying literally “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
• There should be a closer partnership between colleges and employers so that colleges focus on the skills the Corporations need rather than just relying on their outdated curriculum. This is especially true in Information technology and Computer science graduates who face a rude surprise when they graduate and still struggle to find a job with the Technology organizations in America due to their outdated skills or very basic skills.

Conclusion

The internal education system is flawed and needs enormous rectification by the colleges, employers, and government. The only way to save America from the student loan crisis is by ensuring people are getting employment opportunities. Job seekers should not blame foreign workers. Instead, they should blame their education system as it does not provide the required skills & knowledge.  Also, higher education should become cheaper and accessible to everyone wanting to study.

Employers must understand that education is important, but technical competency is even more important. Companies should accentuate the importance of technical skills instead of preferring a piece of paper called a diploma or degree. Colleges and universities should also focus on STEM education and Technology Up Skill Programs and reduce the cost of these degrees so that many students can take up STEM subjects.

You can come out of the vicious circle of student debt by taking up a skill enhancement program. You can secure a position in lucrative fields such as cloud computing, machine learning, data science, web development, and Artificial Intelligence with the right skill sets.  Let’s help you achieve your career goals.

Anytime you want to upgrade your skills and need a helping hand to enter or reenter the tech workforce with high-demand tech skills, reach out to us. Since 2010 we have helped 1000’s of jobseekers achieve success in the technology sector. SynergisticIT’s career-oriented training programs guarantee fast-paced, quality tech education, preparing you with top-notch skills for coveted tech roles in the industry. Reach out to us. SynergisticIT– Home of the Best Data Scientists and Software Programmers in the Bay Area!