The average debt of U.S. college students increased by more than 100 percent in just over a decade, nearly three times faster than the rate of inflation in the Boulder-Denver area, according to a report released by the Colorado Public Interest Research Group on Thursday.
The report compared the changes in national student debt between 1993 and 2004 with the Front Range’s Consumer Price Index, a measure of the cost of living that looks at how prices of goods have changed.
National student debt rose 107 percent over that period, while general cost of living in the Denver-Boulder area rose 38 percent.
CoPIRG made the comparison to draw attention to what it says is a growing problem: student loans that are out of control.
“It’s really just kind of striking to see (debt is) increasing at three times the rate of inflation,” said CoPIRG campaign director Cory Nadler.
Forty-six percent of students graduated with debt in 1993, compared with 66 percent of students in 2004, the report said. At the same time, the amount of debt each student was carrying grew, from just over $9,200 in 1993, to $19,210 in 2004.
Boulder resident Jeremy Neufeld, 26, graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa in 2001, and still has to pay back about $20,000 in loans. His debt keeps him from buying a home or starting a family, he said.
“I’ve been out of college for five years now, and the debt that I have is still a factor in the decisions I make every day,” Neufeld said. “A lot of people are shackled by the fact that they still have other expenses hanging over them.”
Nadler said the CoPIRG report is part of a national campaign to build momentum for more need-based aid, borrower protections and initiatives to keep college tuition down.
