The student debt crisis is a far-reaching financial problem that is more expansive than initially thought. In the third installment of Mapping Student Debt, Generation Progress and Higher Ed, Not Debt unveil new data maps showing the average student debt burden—the share of income spent on student loan payments—across ZIP codes. These maps show not only how student debt burdens people across income groups and geographic regions but also that Millennials—particularly Millennials of color—have had to take on increasingly unaffordable obligations just to have a chance at reaching the middle class.
The data could not be more clear: The student debt problem is not the province of the overprivileged and overeducated but rather that of an entire generation—the most diverse in American history—striving to earn a place in an economy with diminishing opportunities.
Please join Generation Progress and Higher Ed, Not Debt in conversation with experts on economics, labor, and student debt issues. The event will examine how these data maps provide deeper insight into the impacts of the student debt crisis on local communities.
Introductory remarks:
Maggie Thompson, Executive Director, Generation Progress
Panelists:
Colleen Campbell, Associate Director of Postsecondary Education, Center for American Progress
Julie Margetta Morgan, Fellow, the Roosevelt Institute
Kavya Vaghul, Graduate Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Urban Planning and Studies, former Senior Research Analyst, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Marshall Steinbaum, Research Director and Fellow, the Roosevelt Institute
Moderator:
Senya Merchant, Program Manager, Higher Ed, Not Debt Campaign