College attendance is at a record high. Yet the price tag of a college education has more than doubled over the past generation while household incomes have barely budged. Women hold almost 2/3 of the country’s $1.54-trillion student debt: $929 billion. Women earning a bachelor’s degree graduate owing an average of $2,700 more than their male peers. Student debt is the second-highest source of household debt after housing.
Women take about two years longer than men to repay student loans. From the moment women graduate from college, most face a gender pay gap — which compounds as they age. This makes it even harder to pay off their larger share of student debt. As a result, women often put off saving for retirement, buying a home or starting a business.
In addition,state cuts to public colleges and universities — where spending is down $7 billion from 2008 levels (adjusting for inflation) — has significantly limited affordability and access for many students. It has resulted in rising tuition, reduced services available and closing of some campuses. One analysisfound,in California alone, more than 139,000 students were denied admission from 2004 to 2014 and the state is projected to be short 1.1 million bachelor’s degrees by 2030 due to state cuts to college funding.
