{"id":45020,"date":"2016-11-02T14:12:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T19:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=45020"},"modified":"2016-11-02T15:53:22","modified_gmt":"2016-11-02T20:53:22","slug":"as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Emily Olsen and Meredith Francis<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Kyle Walsh was 16, his dad sat him down and explained Kyle would be responsible for paying off his college loans, not him.<\/p>\n

Walsh, 20, is now student body president at Illinois State University, a second stop on his road to a degree. He first attended community college to save money but expects to graduate with up to $15,000 in student loan debt. This is not as bad as many of his classmates, Walsh said, but the burden shouldn\u2019t fall on students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state hasn\u2019t been fulfilling its role in investing in public education,” Walsh said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No easy solutions to alleviate college costs<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Americans typically finish college with $30,100 <\/a>in student debt. That burden has become a huge issue this election cycle, both in state and national campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our discussion about national strength and our role as a global leader, our role as a global democracy, nobody ever talks about education as part of that foundation,\u201d said U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).<\/p>\n

Duckworth is sponsoring the \u201cIn the Red Act,\u201d<\/a> a bill that will reduce the cost of college through strengthening Pell Grants, making two-year community colleges free and allowing students to refinance loans. To pay for the $60 billion program, the bill calls for the closing of special interest corporate tax loopholes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Duckworth\u2019s opponent, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL), opposes the plan. Kirk campaign manager Kevin Art, called it a \u201creckless $60 billion spending program that would have the federal government take over community colleges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Percentage of American graduates with student debt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Click around the map to see the percentage of American graduates\u00a0with student debt in each state. View the full map here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[field name=”HIGHERED”]<\/p>\n

Source: The Institute for College Access and Success 2015 college debt study.<\/a> <\/span>\u00a0(Note: Data was not available for North Dakota.)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Crushing debt meets deadlocked state government<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The soaring cost of college hits close to home in Illinois where a year-long budget crisis continues to create uncertainty for universities. But many states haven\u2019t invested in higher education like they used to.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen some states putting a little bit more money in over the last few years, but it\u2019s still nothing like it was before the recession,\u201d said Diane Cheng, co-author of a study<\/a> from the Institute of College Access and Success.<\/p>\n

In Illinois, the average college student<\/a> graduates with $29,305 in student loan debt, and a vast majority, roughly 66 percent, carry that weight, the eighth highest in the nation.<\/p>\n

Two factors contribute to Illinois\u2019 high student debt rate, Cheng said. Nearly half attend more expensive private or nonprofit universities, well above the national average. Tuition costs roughly $13,000 on average at public universities, while the national average is $8,800.<\/p>\n

Looming effects of the state\u2019s ongoing budget crisis don\u2019t help, either.<\/p>\n

After a year without a budget in which public universities got almost no money from the state, Illinois passed a stop-gap budget to pay for state operations through December. So far, there\u2019s no budget for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in June 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope very much we have a solution to this crisis by the time our next legislative session starts,\u201d said State Rep. Will Guzzardi (39th). \u201cI can\u2019t say for sure that we will. Human service providers and higher education in particular \u2026 are really looking to our leaders for responsibility and just to be grown-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guzzardi is spearheading Tuition Free Illinois<\/a>, a campaign for legislation to make the state\u2019s public universities free for Illinois residents. He argues debt is a huge burden for students across the nation, preventing them from buying homes<\/a> and starting families<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cA college education now is basically the equivalent of what a high school education was 50 years ago in terms of providing middle-class jobs,\u201d Guzzardi said.<\/p>\n

While Kyle Walsh is pretty confident he\u2019ll find a job and start to pay back his loans after graduation, he argues it could be difficult for his university \u00a0to function if the Legislature and Gov. Bruce Rauner can\u2019t agree on a budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t go through this much longer,\u201d he said, \u201cWe\u2019re essentially functioning as a private university at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Students and professors listen to Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) discuss the burden of student debt at a campaign event. (Emily Olsen\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Emily Olsen and Meredith Francis When Kyle Walsh was 16, his dad sat him down and explained Kyle would be responsible for paying off his college loans, not him. Walsh, 20, is now student body president at Illinois State University, a second stop on his road to a degree. He first attended community college […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":293,"featured_media":45072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[766,2941,675],"tags":[3217,3221,3059,3219,3220,2458,3187,3218],"class_list":["post-45020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election2016","category-fall-2016","category-social-justice","tag-college-debt","tag-higher-education","tag-illinois-budget-impasse","tag-kyle-walsh","tag-mark-kirk","tag-student-loans","tag-tammy-duckworth","tag-will-guzzardi"],"yoast_head":"\nAs Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue? - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue? - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Emily Olsen and Meredith Francis When Kyle Walsh was 16, his dad sat him down and explained Kyle would be responsible for paying off his college loans, not him. Walsh, 20, is now student body president at Illinois State University, a second stop on his road to a degree. He first attended community college […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-02T19:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-02T20:53:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"840\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"553\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"meredithfrancis2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"meredithfrancis2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/\",\"name\":\"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue? - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-02T19:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-02T20:53:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/455d914520c8ed9f372afe436856b21c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg\",\"width\":840,\"height\":553,\"caption\":\"Photo at top: Students and professors listen to Rep. Tammy Duckworth discuss the burden of student debt at a campaign event. (Emily Olsen\/MEDILL)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/455d914520c8ed9f372afe436856b21c\",\"name\":\"meredithfrancis2017\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f78576ff3cb54bc140fd3443932b47156d836a4869fa6ab9e5c04e527a490f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f78576ff3cb54bc140fd3443932b47156d836a4869fa6ab9e5c04e527a490f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"meredithfrancis2017\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/meredithfrancis2017\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue? - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue? - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Emily Olsen and Meredith Francis When Kyle Walsh was 16, his dad sat him down and explained Kyle would be responsible for paying off his college loans, not him. Walsh, 20, is now student body president at Illinois State University, a second stop on his road to a degree. He first attended community college […]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2016-11-02T19:12:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-11-02T20:53:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":840,"height":553,"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"meredithfrancis2017","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"meredithfrancis2017","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/","name":"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue? - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg","datePublished":"2016-11-02T19:12:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-02T20:53:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/455d914520c8ed9f372afe436856b21c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/11\/highered.jpg","width":840,"height":553,"caption":"Photo at top: Students and professors listen to Rep. Tammy Duckworth discuss the burden of student debt at a campaign event. (Emily Olsen\/MEDILL)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/as-illinois-students-drown-in-debt-will-elected-officials-come-to-the-rescue\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"As Illinois students drown in debt, will elected officials come to the rescue?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/455d914520c8ed9f372afe436856b21c","name":"meredithfrancis2017","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f78576ff3cb54bc140fd3443932b47156d836a4869fa6ab9e5c04e527a490f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f78576ff3cb54bc140fd3443932b47156d836a4869fa6ab9e5c04e527a490f2d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"meredithfrancis2017"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/meredithfrancis2017\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/293"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}