A college student from St. Louis will attend President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, as the guest of U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, and will join McCaskill in shining a spotlight on the enormous amount of debt facing America’s college graduates.
Sable Givens, a native of St. Louis, Mo., is currently studying psychology and human resources at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Givens receives federal financial aid, but still expects to graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt.
Givens is teaming up with McCaskill to highlight the ways in which the historic amount of debt facing college graduates across the country can hobble those graduates’ financial futures, as well as the nation’s economic growth.
According to the Institute for College Access & Success:
•The average debt for a Missouri graduate of a public 4-year institution or private non-profit 4-year institutions is $25,844,
•he proportion of Missouri graduates from those institutions with debt is 59 percent,
• Missouri ranks 33rd in the nation in terms of how much debt students graduate with, and 31st in the nation in terms of how many students graduate with debt
McCaskill previously announced her support for a sweeping bill to allow individuals to refinance their student loan debt at lower interest rates, helping address the record high levels of crippling loan debt and delinquencies.
