Young people emerging from college these days are facing the double whammy of record student loan debt and a struggling economy that just isn’t producing enough career-track jobs to enable them to repay their obligations.
The millennials are at risk of
So, what to do?
At the federal level, the country must consider higher education alongside entitlement programs that are driving up our debt.
Is it fair to leave a comprehensive safety net for older Americans unreformed while young people face soaring tuition and public support for higher education that fails to keep up?
We don’t think so.
At the state level, Coloradans must seriously examine the state’s commitment to funding higher education and consider how the budget choices we make will shape the lives of up-and-coming generations.
The trend has not been good in Colorado. Since 1980, the state , according to a state assessment of higher education. Meanwhile, the national average is $12.28.
It should come as no surprise, then, that .
The — the highest amount ever. In Colorado, the average was $22,017.
These young people leave college with record debt to find a decimated job market and dim prospects to build up the kinds of assets and live the lives their parents did.
A between younger and older Americans — the widest on record.
The net worth of those 65 and older was measured at 47 times that of those under 35. The gap is double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times what it was 25 years ago, according to the analysis by the Pew Research Center.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is .
The aforementioned Pew report said fully .
To be sure, most of us have done that at some point. But prior generations haven’t faced the confluence of trends that threaten to make the odd, dead-end job the norm.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it: to give young people coming up some of the same opportunities those before them had.
This all-important gateway to a middle-class life cannot become so expensive that it drifts out of reach.
