COLORADO SPRINGS — Student loans are a problem weighing on a significant portion of the population, and economists warn it could pose a risk to the workforce in the future.
Tatiana Bailey, PhD in economics, believes that student loans will further impede the education people need to do today’s livable-wage jobs, which in turn will affect the already existing US labor shortage.
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About 70% of college graduates have student loans — about 43 million borrowers. The average student loan debt is about $37,000, but huge racial and ethnic disparities are hidden within that statistic, with white borrowers owing about $30,000 and black borrowers about $55,000.
Bailey pointed out that the increasing financial burden of student loans can increase the time to graduation. Only about 50% of university-level students entering tertiary education actually graduate in sixth year, and after sixth year it is not very likely that they will graduate at all.
As a first-generation Latina graduate, Bailey is immensely grateful for the opportunities her family provides that lead to a career after graduation, but she acknowledges that many low- and even middle-income households sending their children to college is easy no longer fundable. That makes a lot of support all the more effective.
“I am very pleased to announce that the UCCS Business Forum is now offering two scholarships that it will offer to two undergraduate students each year, thanks to the generous support of the approximately 60 business partners that we have and have funded the Forum” said Bailey.
“These two grants alone will not change the morass of problems we have in higher education. However; maybe, just maybe, they can make a difference for two deserving students and their children for generations to come.”
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