Aram Zucker-Scharff

Should you apply for Obama’s student-loan relief?:

Millions of cash-strapped Americans may soon be able to reduce their monthly student loan payments thanks to a proposal President Obama will make Monday. But just because you can cut payments, doesn’t mean you should.

Oh wait, even if you wanted to, you probably can’t.

ilovecharts:

Hi Guys!

Today, I’m headed down to the White House to participate in the live Q&A the President will be doing with Tumblr about the importance of making college more affordable for current students, graduates and their families and the new executive actions he announced on Monday to ease the burden of college debt for millions of Americans.

David Karp will be interviewing the the President, using questions from the Tumblr community. The event will stream live today at 4pm ET on the White House Tumblr.

Above are some of the charts from a newly released White House report which show … pretty much what I’m sure you all already know. The current system is, shall we say, imperfect. There is a lot of work to be done. Hopefully, today is illuminating and gives us reason to be optimistic. 

I’ll post any other charts I come across here, document the trip on my personal Tumblr (so as not to spam those who are uninterested with non-charty content here) and will be live-Tweeting the event and attendant mischief at /ilovecharts. I’ll see you there!

Hugs and hand-pounds,
Jason

That means that the school that cost someone $40,000/year in 2013 will more than double to $90,000 by 2030. That adorable toddler whose every move you’re documenting on Facebook could be putting you in the poorhouse in 17 years when he starts working on his degree in Frisbee history.

You can blame student debt for America’s inequality and shrinking middle class:

There is a tendency among elite opinion makers to believe that debt accrued while gaining a college degree is “good debt” that isn’t problematic because, as the thought goes, those with college degrees tend to make enough money to recoup their debt over a lifetime. Student debt is supposedly an equalizer—

But…

Student debt is actually preventing them from participating in the wealth-building processes that previous generations have enjoyed.

The debate over student debt usually focuses on those right out of school, but that masks that a substantial portion of those with student debt struggle mightily to pay off their loans in a timely manner, delaying (sometimes in perpetuity) their entry into the middle class. Research by the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York finds that many borrowers still haven’t paid off their student loans by their 40s and 50s.