After decades of rising college costs and tepid income growth, student debt has become a drag on graduates’ hopes and a threat to economic growth.
The cost of a four-year college education, adjusted for inflation, is two and half times as much as it was in the 1978-79 school year, while median family income has increased only 20 percent.
A new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York documents the hardship that has resulted from the soaring level of student debt taken on to cover those costs. About one in 10 student borrowers is behind on repayments, the highest delinquency level of any type of borrowing in the Fed’s survey, including home mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.
