Dear Mr. or Madam President,

In two years, I will be graduating from high school and looking to attend a college or university to pursue my professional goals. I would like to be a dentist, which is very expensive. It costs around 400,000 dollars just to complete the schooling. Who has 400,000 dollars just laying around? Not me! Student debt is very common and growing. In fact, it has increased tremendously since 2008. According to an article in KQED News, "About 40 million Americans– up from 29 million in 2008 - are currently paying off student loans. On average, borrowers are carrying $29,000 in loans (up from $23,000 in 2008). " Students are using loans; leaving them in debt which they may not be able to crawl out of.

Due to the outrageous numbers in student loans, many of them turn into student debt. Student debt carries onto failure of payments for either long or short periods of time. This causes even more trouble for the student with the loan to carry on with his or her life after schooling. As KQED News states, "According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, nearly seven million Americans in the past year defaulted (failed to make a payment for over a year) on their federal student loans." This is a huge dilemma for people in need of money for higher education because nobody wants to have the stress that's carried with a loan. Nobody wants to be in debt and especially this immense of one. This problem has affected everyone stated Marketwatch.com, "Between 1980 and 2013, middle-class workers have seen their incomes barely budge, and low-wage workers have actually seen their incomes decrease, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. At the same time that Americans have less money to pay for college, a degree has become an increasingly important ticket to the workforce. The gap between the earnings of high school and college graduates hit a record high in 2013, in large part because the wages of high school graduates have dropped off precipitously over the past few decades." (Berman). This means that a good job that pays good money is way more expensive than a job right out of high school. So to be able to get a good job you have to get a student loan to pay for school.

As statistics of loans continue to breakthrough and sky rocket to new records. Here are some examples of how it's affecting people's lives. An example from Washingtonpost.com, Stephanie O’Donnell-Peters explains, "My husband and I each have a private student loan. Our monthly payment total for just that loan is $1100 a month. Because of this we cannot afford to buy a house, start a family, travel and just about anything other than paying bills, rent and this loan.” So not only is she having to pay off her loan, but she has to pay her rent, too. The article from Washingtonpost.com explains another person’s point of view on this situation, "I don't understand how young people are expected to succeed these days. Costs for school keep rising, and you can't get a job without education, so you take out loans. You graduate and then suddenly the entry level jobs have disappeared and are replaced with unpaid internships. You work the same amount of time as employees and do it for free. How can I gain experience and sustain myself at the same time? - Isabel C." It affects everyone!

So, as you may know, nationwide, people are going to college to become vastly educated on the topic of their choice, but what you may not know is the struggle and urgency of student loans that are left with the student. As the next president, please deeply consider proposing an easier way to financially make higher education accessible to everyone. Thank you and I hope you can help everyone by making higher education a possibility.

Sincerely,

​ Amiee B.