The rising cost of attending college has had a serious impact on the finances of most students and their families, but the burden has been distributed unequally. Various studies point to the negative, long-term effects of taking on education debt, and considering debt levels vary greatly by race and socioeconomic status, there’s concern over how trying to get a college education actually exacerbates inequality in America.
Demos, a progressive public policy organization, published “The Debt Divide” in May to highlight research that points to growing inequality in higher education and how that translates to postgraduate well-being. The 30-page report covers a lot of ground, citing data from Department of Education surveys, the Federal Reserve’s 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances, Gallup polls and other existing research, and some of the figures may give you a different perspective on the state of education debt in the U.S.
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