Dear Future President,

Seven in ten seniors that graduate from public and nonprofit colleges are left with debt that will stay with them for their life until they pay it back. This makes it very hard for them to have a good life, because their debt will most likely grow and stay with them to keep them from doing the things they want. The debt will just get worse if you don’t do anything about it now.

There is more than 1 trillion in student debt, out of the 19 trillion national debt. The US National Debt Clock shows this and it rising at a very fast rate. This is a huge amount of debt in total, and think about how much it is for each person. It is mostly student loans, because they can’t pay for the college right away, even the non-profit ones. The debt is still rising, and it will be more of a problem later.

The debt is rising, soon it will be so high that students will have their debt for a much longer time. According to the institute for College Access & Success, “Seven in 10 seniors (68%) who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in 2015 had student loan debt, with an average of $30,100 per borrower. This represents a 4% increase from the average debt of 2014 graduates.” Yes, a 4% increase may not seem like a lot, but they also stated “Average debt levels for all graduating seniors with student loans rose to $29,400 in 2012 — a 25% increase from $23,450 in 2008.” As you can see in four years the average debt rose almost $6,000. It is already so high that even if it was raised by 1% in a year, it would be a significant difference. That is why the debt is so high, compared to all the debt in the US.

Student loans are the second most highest debt in the US, according to Jillian Berman, a reporter, “The total outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. is $1.2 trillion, that's the second-highest level of consumer debt behind only mortgages. Most of that is loans held by the federal government. About 40 million Americans hold student loans and about 70% of bachelor's degree recipients graduate with debt.” This debt is the second highest in the US, and if you think about it mortgage may be caused by the people who come out with college debt and can’t pay it back, which means that they can’t pay for a house. This problem causes many of our debt, even if it’s not just for college, and it has to be helped to keep our country from going bankrupt.

The student debt is very important to this generation and the next, and will affect them. The numbers will keep rising and the US will have more debt and less money. The debt is something that will not just go away, it will stay if nothing is done.