Student debt defers people from pursuing higher education due to the financial burden.

1. Supporting Arguments

2. Long Term Debt: With the price of higher education rising along with tuition, books, and housing, it puts a fear into people knowing they'll have to take out loans. Most of the time these loans end up lasting until after they retire.

2.1. "The loan is going to be here when I'm dead and gone. There's no way I can pay it off. I'm not working now. Whole stack over here, let's see. Her original balance from 1989 was around $5,500 and has ballooned to nearly $35,000 with interest. Evans now has to pay more than six times her original loan amount" (VPM 0:14).

2.1.1. “The Lasting Burden of College Debt.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TheVTtWEn8&ab_channel=VPM . Accessed 7 Mar. 2025.

2.2. "The average annual cost to attend a four-year public institution has nearly tripled since 1980. Following decades of rising tuition and costs for higher education, roughly 43 million Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loans. Graduates take an average of 20 years to fully pay off their loans. Burdened by debt as they enter the workforce, they often have to put off buying a home, saving for retirement, or starting a family. And those who default face a host of negative consequences" (GEPI 2).

2.3. "This can lead families to prioritize education earlier, in the middle school years, when young people are developing the skills needed to succeed in high school and college. It can also support the growing number of adult learners by reducing one big uncertainty about the cost of returning to pursue a college degree. Making a public college education tuition-free can indeed enhance access and covering non-tuition costs of college can also aid in completion" (Feldman Marsicano 1).

3. Low Income and First Generation: The odds against low income and first generation students are stacked as it is usually harder for them to go to college or pursue higher education. In most cases, low income and first generation students don't have the access to the same resources as everyone else.

3.1. "Research suggests that socioeconomically disadvantaged and less academically prepared students are much more likely to struggle in online courses and that achievement gaps between low-income students and their more affluent peers are larger in exclusively online courses. We might expect course success and stop-out rates to be worse under the current circumstances, especially given the emergency remote instruction in play this spring" (Kelly Columbus 4).

3.2. "It is easy to see why: “free college” fits on a bumper sticker, and it offers a simple message that signals to low-income families and first-generation students that achieving a valuable post-secondary credential is possible for them" (Feldman Marsicano 1).

3.3. "That is because borrowing rates among these students actually declined markedly in the most recent year in this analysis after increasing during the earlier years. Had there been no decline in 2015-16, it would be accurate to say that borrowing rates increased the most among low-income students" (Delisle 3).

3.4. https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/17777.jpeg

3.5. Statista. 23 Apr. 2019. https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/17777.jpeg . Accessed 7 Mar. 2025.

4. Student debt is the main deferrent from people pursuing higher education due to the financial burden. The long term benefits don't outway the long term debt which is why people fear that pursuing higher education will put them in a neverending cycle. Community college can also lead to neverending debt and the return on investment is not as high. Low income and first generation students are the most likely to shy away from higher education.

5. Refutations

6. "There are many proposals for making college accessible to all people in the US, such as forgiving student loans and free community college. Several states already provide tuition-free community college" (GEPI 5).

6.1. "76-year-old Yvonne Evans has been trying to pay off student loans for nursing courses she took at Southside Virginia Community College over 30 years ago" (VPM 0:03).

7. Counter Arguments

8. Long Term Benefits: Many argue even though higher education puts you in debt, the return on investment is worth it as it helps you get paid more in the workforce.

8.1. "Many of these workers are struggling to keep their heads above water; 11 percent of aggregate student loan debt is now more than 90 days past due, or delinquent. Others are unable to invest in a home, vehicle, or start a family (and engage in all the myriad acts of consumption that go with that)" (Levitz 1).

8.1.1. https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/webresources.savingforcollege.com/images/articles/article_image_20180702163237_avg_student_loan_debt.png

8.1.2. Kantrowitz, Mark. 29 June 2018. https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/webresources.savingforcollege.com/images/articles/article_image_20180702163237_avg_student_loan_debt.png . Accessed 7 Mar. 2025.

9. "By restricting student financial aid at institutions with low graduation rates and abysmal records of ensuring their students can repay loan balances upon graduation, we can encourage more students to attend the colleges and universities most likely to help them graduate and help them avoid crippling debt" (Feldman Marsicano 12).

9.1. "There's this huge mindset about go to college and make yourself better and this will be good for you and all this sort of thing, and then people wind up in debt, huge amounts of debt and worse off" (VPM 1:02).

10. Community College: People also argue that the cost of community college is low enough for everyone and is accessible to people who don't have the option to go to a university.

10.1. People are still going into debt while attending community college and the return on investment is not as high as it is harder to find.a job.

11. "Free college programs have proliferated at the state and local levels over the past decade, focused primarily on the nation’s community colleges" (Feldman Marsicano 1).

11.1. "Given current politics, however, it is unlikely that any new program that fundamentally changes the current system will be adopted quickly on the federal level" (GEPI 5).

11.1.1. “How Much Debt Do Today’s College Students Have? 👀 | Student Loan Crisis.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C_Iy3YvMwg&ab_channel=TurningPointUSA . Accessed 7 Mar. 2025.