The average student loan debt in the United States is $25,000. This is a heavy burden, even for those who are able to land a well-paying job when they join the workforce after graduating from college. The financial burden is even more devastating for those who are unable to obtain a well-paying job, or even a job at all. For those who graduate, the financial burden of student debt comes with at least a degree that will help them land a decent job, but for the 41% of students who drop out, it's about 'an enormous financial burden with no glimmer of hope. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay With Stafford loans at the standard rate of 6.8%, someone with $25,000 in student debt will expect to pay $280 per month for 10 years. For someone able to land a job with a starting salary of around $50,000, their student loan payments will only be about 6% of their monthly salary before taxes. For those who could only get a minimum wage job, nearly a quarter of their monthly salary went toward paying off their student loans. Even with programs that allow borrowers to pay what they can based on their income, interest continues to pile up, creating more and more debt that becomes harder to repay without any guarantee than a good job. paid be offered to them in the future. When faced with the issue of student debt, disadvantaged students who are most in need of financial aid are more likely to drop out due to accumulating student debt. A Demos report found that low-income Black and Latino students were more likely to drop out of college due to debt. Compared to only half of white students who cite debt as their reason for dropping out, 70% of black students drop out because of debt. Many of these students do not have the money to continue their education or cannot focus on both their studies and the work they needed to pay for school. Among students who enroll part-time, likely to be able to work part-time to help pay for college, only 43.2 percent end up graduating within six years. This only creates a feedback loop where those who are disadvantaged don't have the wealth to focus solely on school, making it less likely that they will earn a degree that will help them improve their situation. The easiest way to address this problem is to offer more generous financial aid programs that limit the amount of loans that take up much of the financial aid. Often, students find that their financial aid covers all of their needs, but they don't notice that a large percentage of the financial aid is in the form of loans that they will have to repay. One positive is that loans like Stafford's are subsidized and have relatively low rates, but that doesn't take away from the fact that students will owe tens of thousands of dollars in loans if they graduate. According to Demos, the higher costs of attending college and, therefore, higher student debt are the result of states' continued reductions in spending on higher education. In the decades preceding 2012, public spending on..