Student Loan Debt Problem Overstated: Brookings Institute

It’s become common knowledge that the combination of enormous student loan debt loads and a tepid economic recovery has left recent graduates with a crushing burden, so when a Brookings Institution pushed back against that narrative is was bound to create waves. It concludes that the growth in student loan debt isn’t a serious problem, which would be great news if the report held up well to scrutiny.

“We find that, on average, increases in lifetime incomes among households with student loan debt more than offset increases in borrowing,” write Beth Akers and Matthew M. Chingos, fellows at the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. “We also find that the average burden of monthly payments for...