Women owe 64% of student debt, report says

WASHINGTON — The burden of student debt is having an outsized effect on women who now hold nearly two-thirds of the $1.3 trillion in outstanding education loans, according to a new report from the American Association of University Women.

“It’s important to understand all of the challenges facing women in the United States, and in terms of their economic well-being, student debt is a big one,” said Kevin Miller, senior researcher at the American Association of University Women.

Based on data from the Education Department, Miller and his team estimate that women enrolled in college borrow about 14 percent more on average than men in a given year.

Women typically owe $1,500 more than their male counterparts upon completion of a bachelor’s degree, and African-American women take on more student debt on average than any other group of women, the study said.

Khallilah Watkins, 27, can attest to the struggle that some AfricanAmerican women face in covering the cost of college. There was no end to the emotional support her family provided while she attended the University of Missouri, but Watkins said no one had the financial resources to help pay for tuition, room and board, so she borrowed nearly $50,000 to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

By the time she landed at Trinity Washington University to pursue an advanced degree in communications, Watkins hoped to keep her borrowing to a minimum by using a portion of the education grant she received after serving as a high school counselor through AmeriCorps.

But she still needed to take out more loans. After dropping out of Trinity because of financial hardship, Watkins deferred her loan payments as she had trouble finding work to cover all of her expenses. With the interest that accrued, she now owes $74,000.

“I’m a first-generation college student, so I had to figure out a lot of this on my own,” said Watkins, who lives in Chicago with her husband and newborn daughter. “I wasn’t naive about having to repay the debt, but the interest accumulation — it’s just all too much.”

Considering the larger loan amounts that women take on and the fact that they make up more than half of the college population, the study estimates that 64 percent of student debt, or about $833 billion, is held by women. The number may be bit higher because the study looked only at graduates, not women who drop out of college or mothers who take out parent loans to help their children pay for school.

SCOTT SMELTZER/HUNTINGTON BEACH INDEPENDENT Women typically owe $1,500 more than male counterparts upon bachelor’s degree completion, a group’s study says.