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WHEREAS, approximately 70 percent of students graduating from institutions of higher learning in recent years have done so with student loan debt. Further, the average 2016 graduate held approximately $37,000 in student loan debt, a six percent increase from 2015, and, per a Citizen's Bank survey, nearly 59 percent of millennials are unsure of when their loan debt will be fully paid off; and
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WHEREAS, nationally, the total student loan debt is more than $1.4 trillion, spread across close to 44 million borrows, trumping the combined $620 billion worth of credit card debt held by Americans; and
WHEREAS, the average monthly student loan payment for borrowers between the age of 20 and 30 is $351, while the median monthly student loan payment for borrowers in that age range is $203; and
WHEREAS, the student loan delinquency rate in the United States, wherein a borrower is 90 or more days delinquent or in default, is 11.2 percent; and
WHEREAS, as of 2016, there were nearly 42 million borrowers who took out federal student loans, accounting for more than $1 trillion; and
WHEREAS, between 2000 and 2014, the total sum of outstanding federal student debt obligations almost quadrupled as it passed the $1 trillion mark, while at the same, the number of borrowers of student loan monies more than doubled to close to 42 million, with default rates among these newer borrowers growing to their highest points in the past two decades; and
WHEREAS, according to a 2016 study by the National Associations of Realtors and SALT, a consumer literacy program managed through American Student Assistance, 71 percent of non-homeowners with student loan debt reported that monthly payment obligations kept them from purchasing a home, with more than half stating that student debt would likely continue to bar them from homeownership for more than five years; and
WHEREAS, it would be of great benefit to Pennsylvanians with student loan debt for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to ...
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