Dear Future President, 

   In America, according to USA Today College, we owe $1.3 trillion because of the 44 million people who decided to use a college loan. The average student loan debt payment due each month for people who are 20 to 30 years old is $351. Therefore, millions of people are in serious debt. Many can’t pay the monthly amount and the government will stop at nothing to get the complete amount of money. This is a serious issue. This debt does not allow some people to simply rent an apartment and this problem will lead to our economy being ruined. As the next president, when you have time to focus on this issue, I hope that you will help decrease the amount of college fees people have to pay.

   To begin, this college student loan debt is important because all the people who owe money won’t be able to move on with their lives. Of course, they won’t be able to pay off their debts in the amount of time the government expects. In fact, “The federal loan debt is now at 11% and while it’s an improvement from six years ago, when the default rate was 15%, it’s still far from ideal.” Clearly, this explains that even though America has had some improvement on the student loan debt, we still aren’t at a place where we should be. It is important that you lower the amount of college fees students have to pay so they won’t need to use a loan in the first place. Furthermore, many adults are not able to keep their job because “ . . . anyone who defaults on a student loan is barred from working for a federal agency. And if you already work for a government agency and default on your loans, you could risk suspension or job loss.” This states that any adults who have not yet paid off their fees will have a great chance of losing the job he or she has if they work for a government agency and have defaulted on their loans. As I’ve said before, this will damage our economy. More people losing their jobs is hardly what should be happening right now. In addition, “ . . . 40 million people across the United States have monumental student debt, as reported by CNN. In fact, student loans have increased by 84% since the recession (from 2008 to 2014).” This explains that people automatically know that they will need to use a student loan because of the amount they need to pay for college. Almost no one can afford to completely pay off the money. Ultimately, the college student loan debt is an issue that will become an even bigger problem in the future unless it is dealt with right now. You should reduce the amount of college fees before this happens.

   To recap on my point, Mr./Mrs. President, I hope that you will use some of your time to focus on this. I know that even though I am only a middle school student and I can not vote yet, I want to live in a country where I don’t have to worry about paying off a huge debt. I know that this will only become a bigger problem over time and it will affect America in a huge way, until you do something to help these people. 

Sincerely,

Melissa H.