College debt surpasses credit card debt at $1.2 trillion.
Jaden Makovsky was annoyed when her mother told her she'd be spending two years at a community college to save on college costs.
Her older brother had just spent four years at Kutztown University and the then-Northampton Area High School student thought it was unfair.
"From a parent's point of view, going to a community college first was the No. 1 choice," Makovsky said. "In my mom's opinion, it was the only choice. Coming from a family with five children, that is a lot of tuition payments."
But as Makovsky is about to graduate from Northampton Community College with zero student loans, she's grateful to her mother. As a presidential ambassador at Northampton, she has a free ride at the Bethlehem Township, Pa.-based school.
"My perception of it has completely changed," said Makovsky, who intends to transfer to Dickinson College in Carlisle.
Student loans are the second-largest form of consumer debt in the nation, surpassing credit card debt. At last count, student loans clock in at more than $1.2 trillion, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Seven in 10 college seniors who graduated in 2012 had student loan debt, with an average of $29,400 per borrower, according to an Institute for College Access and Success report that includes average debt levels for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Pennsylvania ranks No. 3 in average student loan debt at $31,675, while New Jersey clocks in at No. 8 with $29,287, according to the report. About 70 percent of Pennsylvania students graduated with debt in 2012 compared to 65 percent in Jersey.
President Barack Obama has made college affordability and access a major goal of his administration, unrolling College Scorecards and, on Thursday, hosting a college affordability summit. That effort got scores of college presidents and corporate and nonprofit leaders to promise new plans and dollars toward enrolling and graduating more low-income, minority students.
California Congresswoman Karen Bass has introduced the Student Loan Fairness Act because student loans impede economic growth in the United States. Americans aren't buying cars, homes or starting businesses, Bass says on her site explaining the proposed law.
The law would create a 10-10 standard for loan repayment in which a person would make 10 years of payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income. The remaining federal student loan debt would be forgiven.
It would cap federal interest rates at 3.4 percent and allow borrowers whose education loan debt exceeds their income to convert private loan debt into federal Direct Loans. It would reward students who enter public service or work in underserved communities with loan forgiveness.
Liberty High School graduate Justin Amann estimates that he is going to graduate from East Stroudsburg University with $80,000 in debt. He knows the teaching market is tough today but you need a bachelor's degree to earn a living wage, he said."I knew I wanted to be a teacher, so my dream of going to the University of Michigan was probably not going to be realistic," Amann said. "It is too expensive."
He decided to ignore the adage, "Don't let money get in the way of your dreams."
He questions whether a teaching degree from Michigan is more than $100,000 more valuable than a degree from a public, accredited university in his home state.
Amann calls his parents the most supportive people in the world but he's the first traditional college student in his family.
"If my mom had the money, she would pay the whole way for me but she can't," Amann said. "She wants me to learn personal responsibility and I'm happy for it."
He was mentored by folks in the Bethlehem Area School District, including Joe Rahs and Leigh Rusnak. They reminded him to be smart with numbers and that state schools offer a solid public education, Amann said.
Amann qualifies for a lot of financial aid and he has gotten several federal loans. The uncertainty over interest rates recently has been difficult, however.
"It's really nerve-wracking," Amann said.
Makovsky is hopeful she won't have to worry about interest rates even when she transfers to Dickinson, which costs about $60,000 a year, she said. Northampton has a transfer agreement with the school.
Makovsky is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, which offers a $15,000 scholarship she hopes to receive. Dickinson is generous with financial aid and she's attended several open houses, so school officials are familiar with her.
"I don't have any student loans and I hopefully will never have to with the start that Northampton gave me," said Makovsky, who wants to become a lawyer.
She's now gone from worrying she'd be surrounded by people who didn't care about their education or teaching to one of NCC's biggest cheerleaders.
"Any high school student isn't going to understand what I'm telling them now," she said. "They are going to read this article and think another person is preaching about their community college experience. They won't understand what it can be unless they come here and make it everything it can be. No one is going to hand it to you."