Barely Half Of Student Loans Are Being Repaid

Barely Half Of Student Loans Are Being Repaid by Preston Cooper, Foundation For Economic Education

Defaults Are Up, Again

The US Department of Education's new data on the status of outstanding student loans show that outright defaults are up. However, their press release — and much of the accompanying media coverage — instead played up a decline in loan delinquencies. The increase in defaults is worrisome and needs to be addressed by Congress.

The total amount of outstanding direct student loans stood at $855 billion at the beginning of the first quarter of 2016, distributed among over 30 million recipients. (This total does not include loans still outstanding under the now-discontinued FFEL program, which guaranteed private-sector student loans.) The total...