Sources:

April Cartee – Bentonville Public School Teacher, found on LinkedIn
acartee@bentonvillek12.org

Shelby Banks- Connected through CCOA
Phone: 479-409-7581
Email: shelbybanks09@gmail.com

Molly Ballard- 3rd Grade Teacher (poverty school)

(479) 841-5042

Shelby Banks- Teacher (non poverty school)

Phone: 479-409-7581

Email: shelbybanks09@gmail.com

Jan Rogers- Special Needs Advisor at a Preschool

(479) 981-2377

Joel Doelger- Credit Counselor at CCOA

joeld@ccoacares.com

OVERVIEW
By Katie Beth Nichols

A post-secondary education is sold to Americans as a guaranteed path to success and eventual financial freedom, but for some, the cost is greater than they expect.

“My second year of college I went into my advisor’s office and I just had a mental breakdown,” Molly Ballard said. “I just started crying. I was so overwhelmed by all my jobs and school and finances all at the same time.”

Molly Ballard, now a teacher in Northwest Arkansas, had nearly $54,000 in student loan debt upon graduating from the University of Arkansas in 2012. Although Ballard’s amount of debt is abnormal, stories like these are not. Nearly 44 million people are contributing to the $1.5 trillion in debt crisis in the United States, according to data from the Federal Reserve. This number is second only to mortgage debt, passing credit card and auto loans, according to the Washington Post.

One in four people who go to college have to take out some form of student loans, according to CNN Money.

It is no question that student loans affect students and their lives during college and post-graduation. Some demographics are hit harder by the affects of student loan debt than others. For instance, women carry nearly two-thirds of the nation’s student loan debt, according to a study by the American Association of University Women.

African American graduates have a similar issue.

African American graduates have a 21 percent 12-year default rate. However, even white students that began college and dropped out have a lower 12-year default rate, at 18 percent, according to MarketWatch.

All of these trends are still true on a state-level. Arkansas graduates from historically black colleges or universities, in general, incur more student loans than those who go to other schools. Just as Arkansas women have more debt than Arkansas men.

However, Arkansas ranks quite low in comparison with each state’s amount of student debt. The national average for student loan debt in 2016 was $37,172. The average for Arkansans in 2016 was $26,800. Although this is below average, and certainly below states on the upper-end of the spectrum, Arkansas graduates still struggle with the burdens linked to student debt.

Molly Ballard made major sacrifices due to her student loans. Ballard had $54,000 in debt upon graduation. Her father was pursuing his Ph.D. at the same time that she was in school, so she was on her own when it came to finances.

Ballard said it was a special moment to graduate the same year as her father, but to both still be struggling with debt six years later, even though her father is a professor at the U of A, is difficult to handle.

“Luckily, my first year of undergrad was paid for through scholarships,” Ballard said.

However, the moment that first year ended, she immediately felt the burn of student debt. Ballard had four jobs during her time at the University of Arkansas. She worked at the Mount Sequoyah gift shop, in the U of A infant and toddler development center, UA parking and transit, Build A Bear Workshop in the mall. Ballard said she used this money to stay afloat during college, the majority of this money was not used for tuition and loan repayment.

Ballard pays $625 every month toward her student loan repayment. She said that she knew her payments would be high, but she didn’t realize how much it would affect her life and daily decisions. Her most recent sacrifice financially was not getting a new car when she needed one. “I ended up getting a $500 car just to get by,” Ballard said.

Some borrowers have student loan debt on a significantly smaller scale.

April Cartee, a 39-year old from Birmingham, Ala., is a sixth grade science teacher in the Bentonville Public School District. She has no student loan debt because her parents paid for her associate’s, bachelor’s and graduate education. Cartee says she is a lifelong learner, and has not stopped going to school.

Cartee is working on her counseling degree at Harding University. For this particular degree, Cartee has been taking one class per semester.

Cartee said she thinks it makes sense financially because she can pay for one credit of school on her credit card instead of taking a full load of classes and having to take on the burden of student loans.

“I feel like teaching is a field that people do more education for other professions,” Cartee said. “Everything within it that you want to do has some sort of certification attached to it.”

Cartee has never taken a loan out for school, she and her husband decided to put the expense on their credit card.

“We just pay for it in a timely manner and build up a lot of good credit,” Cartee said. “So we gained a lot of points on our credit card and use them for airline travel.”

Cartee is on a non-traditional graduation timeline, but she said that this is what works for her life right now.

“I would rather be doing more classes at a time, but now I’m mom and wife and teacher and friend, I’m just not at that point in my life anymore. I’ve done the full-time student thing. I’m just past that phase of life. Yes, it takes that much longer, but for me, what’s the rush?”

Jan Rogers graduated in 2001 and is still feeling the repercussions from her financial decisions that she made in college.

“If I were beginning college now, it would have impacted my career choice,” Rogers said. “But when I started college in ‘95, we didn’t really know a whole lot about all of that. I knew, going into social work, I wasn’t going to make a ton of money. I think being young and not having people in my family to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do financially, I didn’t really pay attention to that.”

Rogers’s parents did not attend college, but always emphasized the importance of a post-secondary education.

“It was just something that was expected of me,” Rogers said. “In my small town, there were barely any jobs anyway. So if you wanted to have a job at all, a good one or not, you had to have a degree of some sort.”

She said that in her town, women had an even harder time getting well-paying jobs.

She said that she thinks that her degree was worth the money, but she said that it is disheartening when she has friends and coworkers that did not attend college and are making the same amount as her and without having the added burden of student loan payments every month.

“I only pay $165 a month, which isn’t a lot, but if I applied that to my house payment every month, our house would be paid off by now,” Rogers said.

Shelby Banks, a northwest Arkansas school teacher, also had parents that did not attend college. Banks lived at home during her entire college education, including her masters and for one more year after graduation. However, even with these sacrifices being made, Banks graduated with $30,000 in student debt.

I have always lived a very low-key life financially,” Banks said.

Banks also started her college career at community college to save money on tuition costs. She said that her college experience was definitely affected by the fact that she was living at home.

Post-graduation, Banks decided to pursue credit counseling.

“More than anything I just needed it for the guidance,” Banks said. I just wanted someone who could tell me what all my options are and explain them to me so I can get the most bang for my buck.”

Joel Doelger, a counselor at Credit Counseling of Arkansas, said that people come to credit counseling for a multitude of reasons.

“They’re just stuck,” Doelger said. “They’re either spinning their wheels or they have their heads stuck in the sand because they just don’t know where to go.”

Doelger said that many people feel this way and are not adaquately prepared for the real cost of college.