I read Ephrat Livni’s “$1.5 trillion of student loan debt has transformed the American dream,” Wesley Brown’s “Experian: Arkansas among top states with students debt trouble; U.S. student debt ‘bubble’ nears $1.4 trillion,” and The City Wire staff’s “Arkansas student loan debt at $9 billion, small part of $1.19 trillion in U.S.” One of the most prominent topics, of course, was the ever-increasing national student loan debt. Throughout each of these articles, I saw the amount of debt grow from $1.19 trillion in 2015 to $1.5 trillion in 2018. (Good to see the specific details) This drastic increase has many concerned over not only the rising cost of higher education, but also the rising student loan defaults. Why is the cost of attending college increasing so much from year to year? Are schools doing enough to make sure their students are taken care of financially outside of paying for classes?

Another common subject was Arkansas’ place in the problem of student loan debt. According to The City Wire’s article, Arkansas ranked #22 in the country when measuring the amount of student debt by state. (what is the problem with these rankings?) Moreover, Brown said Arkansas’ average student debt is at least $31,000. This is due, in part, to the lottery scholarship program’s declining revenue; as the revenue decreases, so do the scholarship amounts. How can the state work to bring that revenue back up? In the 2013-2014 academic year, 64.3% of students applied for financial aid at the UofA, and about 40% received some amount. (Good but where did you get these stats?) Should the university try to give out more financial aid? Is it possible for them to give more aid?

Although there is cause for concern over the sheer size of the student loan debt in the country, these articles did also touch on a possible brighter side of the issue. Default rates are declining slowly in Arkansas, and, though many people may owe a lot of money to federal or private institutions, they are at least making their payments on time, as the percentage of late payments on loans has dropped. Is there some sort of reward system in place for people who pay on time or even early? If not, should there be, and what kind of incentives are possible?

Really well done. 5 of 5 points