The huge load of student debt outstanding gets most attention, particularly debt incurred by students at for-profit schools who never complete a degree or who earn one but can't find releveant employment.
An article at Bloomberg last month highlights a smaller but important problem: $71 billion in parent debt, much of which is at higher interest rates and has less flexible terms than student loans.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-18/this-parent-trap-involves-71-billion-of-federal-education-debt
As with student loans, lenders will offer parents large loans without any attempt to verify ability to pay. The statistics for things like loan averages and default rates for individual schools aren't available. Reporting is due to improve, according to the article.
Even if parents are able to meet the payments on these loans, they may struggle financially and not be able to save for retirement at the rate they need to.
It seems like unsophisticated families are most at risk. The article describes a mother who came to the US from the Philippines and took out 120K in loans to get her daughter through DePaul. With deferrals and a 7.9% interest rate, her debt is up to $179K. Should she have run the numbers before signing up? Sure... But, what kind of ethical banker would put a person in this situation?
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