Washington -- Arizona college students graduated with some of the smallest levels of student debt in the country last year, according to a national report released Thursday.
The study by the Institute for College Access and Success said 49 percent of graduates getting a bachelor’s degree in Arizona in 2011 were in debt, and they owed an average of $19,950. That put Arizona 45th in the country in terms of student indebtedness.
By comparison, two-thirds of bachelor’s degree recipients nationwide had debt last year that averaged $24,854, according to the report, “Student Debt and the Class of 2011.”
The report said states in the South and West tended to have the lowest debt, while states in the Northeast and Midwest were higher.
Report author Matthew Reed said there are many factors at work, like “tuition costs, room and board, books and supplies, scholarships, family resources and low income.”
He could not point to a specific reason for Arizona’s rank, but said it is likely due to the availability of scholarships in the state.
“Arizona students in public college do receive considerable grants and scholarship aid from universities,” said Reed, who is the institute’s program director.
An Arizona Board of Regents spokeswoman agreed, saying that financial aid provided by public universities is a contributing factor to the state’s lower-than-average student debt.
Katie Paquet said regents policy requires that the state’s three public universities “set aside 14 percent of tuition revenues for need-based financial aid.”
“In recent years, the Board has asked the universities to set-aside at least 17 percent. In reality, the universities provide much more,” she said in an email.
In 2010-11, the public universities provided $391 million in institutional scholarships and grants to 69,069 students, Paquet said. Over the last five years, awards of institutional aid have also increased by $167 million at the three public campuses: University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.
Paquet said another factor is the state’s “reasonable higher education costs,” which she said “undoubtedly contribute to the low level of student debt.”
“Despite increases in recent years, tuition and fees at Arizona’s public universities remain competitive among similar institutions,” she said.
Prescott College, a private, non-profit liberal arts school in Arizona, saw 64 percent of its 2011 graduates leave in debt, but at a considerably lower average of $13,737, according to the report.
Prescott’s financial aid director was not surprised by the numbers.
“Our students tend to borrow money, by federal loans, to meet costs,” Mary Frances Causey said.
With a “pretty generous” scholarship program, Causey said about 90 percent of the college’s students receive some kind of partial institutional tuition funding for their undergrad studies.
But she said state grants for private schools have fallen from $40,000 to $50,000 before 2010, to less than $10,000 this year.
“As a private college we don’t have a lot of resources,” she said.
Reed said the report aims to flag the issue of student debt to policymakers and the public, and show the need for financial assistance reform. That is particularly true for aid directed to those in the greatest financial need, based on family income and assets, he said.
“There need to be policy choices at a state and federal level that affect borrowing,” Reed said. “Federal, state and college policymakers should focus on providing need-based financial aid to reduce the need to borrow.”
chuckles3 posted at 9:32 am on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
Don't forget to include their 'fair' share of the national debt. But then again most of them are probably part of the 47% that pay no federal income tax and contribute to the debt rather than service it.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 10:44 am on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
How did we ever get from a Nation who's college and university students either worked their way through college or their parents saved and saved and saved to our present day............"ENTITLEMENT EDUCATION".
Why should strangers, hard working tax-payers subsidize college and university students that they don't know or will ever know.
WHAT HAPPENED TO COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO...."PAYED THEIR OWN WAY"...WITHOUT UNCLE SAM BAILING THEM OUT....YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT.....DEGREE IN AND DEGREE OUT.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO GOT THEIR DEGREES THE.........."OLD-FASHIONED WAY = THEY EARNED IT THEMSELVES".
WHEN DID AMERICA BECOME THIS......."SOCIALIST" ...TAKE FROM THE 53% WHO WORK AND GIVE TO THE 47% WHO ARE ON WELFARE, SECTION-8, HUD, ACCHESS, FOOD STAMPS....AND EVERY OTHER "CUBAN-STYLE"....GOVERNMENT GIVE-AWAY.
I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY BECAUSE WE OLD GEEZERS PAID THOSE TAXES FROM WHEN WE WERE 16YO AND WENT OUT AND "EARNED" A LIVING.....BACK IN THOSE DAYS THERE WERE THE ....DEMOCRAT PARTY COMMIE/SOCIALIST GIVE-AWAY WELFARE STATE PROGRAMS THAT THERE ARE TODAY.
DO I FEEL SORRY FOR TODAY'S COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS = HECK NO.........THEY SIGNED THEIR NAMES TO THE LOAN AGREEMENT PROMISING TO PAY IT BACK....NO ONE FORCED THEM TO.
carin1029 posted at 1:28 pm on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
I can tell you what happened to kids working their way through college- have you looking at tuition costs anytime in the last few years? Tuition has more than doubled, and in many places has gone up 300 or 400%. States have slashed funding to public universities, and kids have no choice but to finance their education, or not go at all. Realize that times have changed since you were a "young whipper-snapper" and stop criticizing something you don't understand.
tularockstar posted at 2:58 pm on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
The reason why the tuition has doubled is because the government made it so easy for the banks to give out student loans like cotton candy! And, take a look at today's major Universities and colleges! These schools are using the tuition they get, not for improving education and/or teachers. They use the money to add foo foo services like coffee bars, restaurants, internet, decorations, massive gyms and any other incentives, which had nothing to do with education. Under Obama Presidency, more college students are in debt with no jobs waiting for them when they graduated! Plus, add the left-wing liberal teachers and professors trying to brainwash them with socialist ideology, and we have a trifecta of failures and reduction in work ethics and integrity! Our country is on its way to becoming a socialist State. Colleges are breeding grounds for left-wing liberalism and communism! Just like what we've seen in the 1960s!
American Socialist posted at 4:10 pm on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
Thank you baby boomers..
Ya'll got to go to college for hardly anything, you could baiscally save enough during sumertime to pay for two semesters.
Now that your running the show, you've jacked up the price of tuition to high Americans now have no choice but to go in debt up to their eyeballs for an education.
Tularockstar....
Um...no, if this were a Socialist state, education would be socialised.
The cold war is over....fyi
Your post shows just how brainwashed the far-right is in this country.
Engaged Voter posted at 4:31 pm on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
Ah, good old Leon, once again pining for the "good old days" when only upper-middle class white children went to college.
I worked and paid my own way through college - I seriously doubt that would be possible in today's economic climate.
Oh, and Leon (and chuckles), that 47% you so casually dismiss as deadbeats includes men and women deployed in our armed forces. I wouldn't call the men and women serving in our Armed Forces deadbeats or welfare queens, but you go on ahead with your ignorant bigotry. It shows the rest of us just how out of touch with reality you really are.
abigailcrrn posted at 7:50 pm on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
Engaged voter, the number of American Citizens who have been forced to live by depending on help from the government (or tax dollars paid by all of us) is probably greater than 47% since Obama took office. MILLIONS of Americans lost homes, jobs, lifetime investments into jobs, careers, savings, investments, homes, credit worthiness, and more, thru residential and business foreclosures, closures, and downsizing, as a result of Obamas' first actions in office. The problem is, instead of actually fixing the problem with the cost of education, Obama ENCOURAGES students to go into debt (even though they can't pay it back and jobs are scarce), and then tells them he will make loans available to them with money that WE will have to BORROW, (even though our debt is in the trillions with no budget, plan or ready resources to pay it back). Instead of fixing the problem he just makes promises and then throws it on the backs of We the People (again) He openly sets this example of dishonesty and lack of integrity, without blinking an eye or caring that as the PRESIDENT of the United States he is setting millions of American students on the wrong path.
electedface posted at 7:33 am on Tue, Oct 23, 2012.
Student debt is stunting the growth of the economy. Student loans have increased by 275% over past decade. As the next generation graduates from college, they are plagued by insurmountable debt that places demands on their income, limiting their ability to spend their earnings in ways that stimulate the economy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRA9ndc1pCM