of the people that have already done this. if you go to technology school now, you are going to pay out at least $200,000. it don't make no sense. each of them don't need all that , because they are trying to do the right thing, trying to make life better for everybody, but the government look like th tonight on c-span, five commencement speeches across the country. at georgetown university school of business. she is followed by republican senator richard burr of north carolina. cynthia nixon, washington post publisher fred ryan and chair of the national transportation safety board. that begins tonight at eight eastern here on c-span.

reporter at market luxist running us now to discuss the cost and value of education as student loan that reaches the 1.5 trillion mark. ing us today. guest: thank you for having me. host: $1.5 trillion in loan debt, how big of a deal is this? guest: we saw student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion in 2012. in the past six years or so, it has ballooned even more. 10 years ago, it was only at $600 billion. host: what is fueling that fast increase? guest: one, more people are going to college than in the past. so there are more borrowers. the loans are getting bigger. the cost of college is higher. . obviously, that makes the outstanding debt go up.

another thing is that people take a long time to pay it off. we are not getting those loans off the books as quickly as we would like. host: you write about the debt hitting the 1.5 join dollars mark, debt that exceeds income -- $1.5 trillion mark, debt that exceeds income. students leave school with a7,000 of debt on average, summit can be bearable for many, given that the average starting salary for a new college graduate last year hovered around $50,000. but as many as one in six college graduates will leave school with the data that exceeds their income. it is challenging for those borrowers to pay off their loans on a standard 10-year plan. youou get the stands -- do get the sense that they understand the burden on the other side? >> --

guest: students understand better today than they did five or six years ago. there has been a lot of coverage in the media have a student challenges and students are becoming more wary. mentionedur callers the features of student loans that make them difficult to pay back. host: we are joined by julian berman, a reporter at "market watch," focusing on student debt and financial issues facing and people. we want to get your thoughts in this conversation. under $50,000, you can call.

host: i want to talk about some other stories you have written. a student debt burden that is becoming a universal problem. there is more evidence that it is a part to gillooly acute challenge for women. the gap -- a particularly acute challenge for women. why is that? guest: these days, a lot more college students are working

adults coming in to college later. women,they come in, because of the gender pay gap, have less money to put towards their education. while they are in school, they are still working. when they get out, that gender pay gap plays a role so women are taking longer to pay off because they are paid less on average. guest: -- host: are there other factors, like care for children or the burdens? guest: that is a big factorguest:. when we talk about the gender whitefield's women -- what fields women are over representative in take longer to pay off. from gaithersburg, maryland. caller: our son just graduated

from a state school in maryland. a businessd with degree. i gave him the opportunity to ck on how he would get through college. we've put this money aside for him. he went to another community codes that fed into maryland, the mac when school, and he was able to get scholarship through the third year. so the money we save, about $80,000, $60,000 of that to him and the rest went to scholarship. it was a great way to keep my some local and let him to be involved in the decision-making on how he would pick the different schools. he did get a lot of offers out-of-state, but i explained to him, even though they were full scholarships, they were not room and board and would not include travel. by getting him involved, he ended up getting a business

college anda state got a great job. he just graduated and it cost him $20,000. enough options like that available to students who are trying to graduate without that enormous loan debt? guest: there are options out there, but it is challenging. schools arete definitely a good deal. families looking to save on college should look towards that. increasingly, we see more students doing what the color described, starting at a community college and transferring to a four-year school. it will be cheaper and save them a lot of money. you have to really pay attention. those credits from community college are not always easy to transfer as one might. so you have to be very intentional. host: another issue you have written about is what you say is

the black-white wealth gap and how it is fueled by student debt. student debt is becoming nearly widelyal, buddy can vary depending on the color of your skin. it is becoming increasingly clear over the past several years that the black student loan borrowers take on far more debt than their white counterparts and struggle to repay it. new research sheds light on the trajectory of black-and-white students during the college-going and student-loan-borrowing debt will and student go on contributing to the persistence of the race wealth gap. about what is fueling that disparity. host: -- guest: there are a few things. there is a historical wealth gap

difference. white students are to the incoming to college with more resources to pay for it. they don't have to borrow as much. so typically, right off the bat, black students are borrowing more. they get in school. they get out. once students leave college, there are a whole host of factors that make it so that black college graduates get paid less. we know about discrimination in the labor market and things like that. on top of that, because of the wealth gap, the authors of this research speculate that white student loan borrowers might have an easier time paying it off in the early years because they have family resources to rely on. maybe their parents are not helping with the loan itself, but maybe they gave them $200 that they used toward some other expense. those are some of the reasons for the differences. host: carol from maryland. thank you for calling.

caller: my name is mindy. i have a four-year degree. when i was getting my first 60 to 90 credits, i was try to save money by getting my credits at a junior college. i went to other colleges to get summer credits. but when i went to transfer over, they did not accept 30 of my credits at the four-your college. that is what is opposite of what should be. it should be that credits always transfer per student, not college money. host: talk a little bit about that. guest: this is a problem that policy members -- policymakers and higher education persons are jumping on.

there are some community college systems that are working to make this smoother, but the color is right. her experience is not abnormal. it can be difficult to transfer those credits. host: we are talking to jillian berman of market watch about the burden of student loan debt which has reached a cumulative total of $1.5 trillion. for thently wrote huffington post as a business reporter and is herself a graduate of the university of michigan. we want to hear from you. headlineead earlier a from today's "wall street

journal" about a dentist who has a million dollars in student loans. more than a hundred people have debt that i. -- that high. itst: we will probably see -- see more of that, but it is still exceptional to have more than a million dollars of student loans that. the person featured in that story, he did a residency that he had to pay for. he had seven years where he was paying top dollar, taking out top dollar loans and not paying them back. even though id, million dollars in student loan debt is exceptional, there are only 100 people who have this and there are 40 million student loan borrowers, we are still

seeing the number grow with high balances. it stands to reason that we will see more borrowers with exceptional loans. host: is a dentist. -- he is a dentist. talk about choosing a field of study. dentistry is the most expensive right now. but other fields, law, medicine have followed closely behind. those are also expensive but make a lot of money. how does the choosing of the fields make a different? cases,any a lot of depending on the school, law and that, he fields like was living an ok life. he owns a nice house. he has a used tesla. yes, a million-dollar

debt is a lot to weigh on your mind, he did get some payoff. he makes $225,000 a year. but if you are going to study a low-paying field, think about whether it makes sense to take on so much debt. dallas,metrius from between $50,000 and $100,000 in student loans. go ahead. caller: i believe it is not worth it. internete boom of the and basically all the concepts that are freely accepted -- accessible to you now, it is not really worth it because of the andds, choices are limited capitalism has a flaw in it. povertyrom a level of where my parents made between

$20,000. the system is not a level with the essentials that you need to survive. equate to what you want to aspire to be. the system is so flawed based off numbers and you are not really going to get anywhere when you're creativity and inspiration is tied to a number. host: i want to give jillian a chance to respond to that, whether people see that experience is worth it. guest: the debt feels this for sure. a lot of people regret their choices and their major choices. one point the caller was making at the end, you shouldn't think

of this decision totally as something about a number and you have to think about what you're passionate about. that's true, too. you don't want to major in something that will make you a lot of money if you won't be able to land a job in it because you are not passionate about it. there are a lot of. factors to consider. out --ou also write write about students having a different experience now that 10 years ago, at the height of the great recession. 2018 ise the class of graduating into an economy on the upswing. talk about the difference in the process that students graduating this week have compared to those who are still suffering from having graduated when the economy took a drastic downturn.

host: in that story, one of the experts i talked to said, hitting the job market with a ea today, you are looking pretty darn good. ba they,ent -- with a you are looking pretty darn good. unemployment is very low. students i talked to today are not concerned about finding a job. they felt they were able to do it. 10 years ago, that was not the case. i was in college during the recession. i had friends who are graduating then. even what i graduated, inc.'s had not totally picked up. there were -- things had not totally picked up. there were questions whether there would be a job for you at all. i interviewed a number of people who worked for two years doing something that did not use their degree. it took them a long time to get into a career. so their trajectory is thrown off. host: nick from new york city

has more than $100,000 in student loans. good morning. know about theto dean at howard university who took money from all the students. the second thing i want to know is how come i heard [laughter] john from kentucky with over $100,000 worth of student loans. caller: i wanted to comment about -- i graduated over 10 years ago and received a doctor to degree. one of the things -- doctorate degree. one of the things i have not heard and i wanted to share is i eighth -- i am a veteran. gettimes you can go in and

a doctorate. i went into resource management. this is something students should be aware of. there are programs out there that allow you to have that dead asused, forbearance is, even a disabled vet, their programs are based on work hours. i am in human resource management. they will allow you to pay your debt to a certain percentage and excuse those debts. what i am not hearing is a lot of students are picking career fields that they have a passion for, but they are not focused on how to educate themselves on how to get to a college degree. and there are programs out there. i wanted to know if you had anything about it or wanted to talk about it. host: one, the forgiveness

programs. two, educating students to understand the effect of these debts. guest: yes, there are a number of debt forgiveness programs. if you are a public seventh, you pay your loans for 10 years -- your federal student loans for 10 years. you theoretically can have that differ given. for students -- that debt forgiven. what students know when they enter college about lot evidenceis a that we are not teaching them enough about it. there are strategies that students and parents can use. i'm talking about this stuff to make it more meaningful for students after school. host: you write a story that says there is a morally suspect way that the government is collecting student loans.

print digitally those who went to for-profit schools, oftentimes pulling out very early in that process, but later being hit with government seizing their funds. a lot of these low-income students can for that -- cannot afford that. guest: they will take a portion of your tax return. but the borrowers in this story, they were taking their earned income tax credit, which is a program specifically for low ,ncome, working americans lifting them out of poverty. so a lot of experts i spoke to said this is a counterintuitive way to deal with this problem. you ideally want these people to have jobs and the money to it eventually pay back their loans. but if you take a government

refund they are relying on to fix a car that they need to get to a job or find permanent housing for them and their children, you will have trouble achieving that goal. host: talk more about the difference between federal student loans -- the biggest source of student loans for most students -- and private loans that have much different terms. they are not backed the government and have drastically different repayment terms. guest: federal student loans come with a lot of protections. most financial aid experts and advocates say that since exhaust with eligibility government loans before they go to the private market. if you get into financial trouble, there are a lot of options available to borrowers to make it easier to pay back that debt. with private loans, they don't come with those types of options.

they can come with a variable interest rate. as the interest rate environment changes, the interest rate on your loan can change, which can be difficult for students to deal with. also, private loans often require that students have a cosigner, so a parent or coparent, their credit is on the line. that's not true with government student loans. missouri withrom under $50,000 in loan debt. caller: my student loan debt goes back into the late 1980's and i'm afraid, when i retire, i will still have student loan debt. i don't think that the student loan forgiveness program is easy enough and widely available and after people so they can take advantage of it. i did go to a private college. i was kind of pushed into getting student loans. they said, don't -- no big

problem. i could take my sweet time, but i did not graduate and i am still burdened with this tremendous debt from a private college. i think students need to be better informed about student loans, perhaps while they are in high school or even junior high or something like that. secondly, junior colleges across america should be made free tuition to everyone. that might help lower some of keep down the cost of private universities. i think that will go a long way. host: i want to give jillian a chance to address both of those issues, particularly the proposal that we have heard from lawmakers that, community colleges should be free. guest: i think what the color is getting at, right now, for the past several decades, college

has become a riskier proposition because it is expensive. wednesday investment in college was high tuition was low. you could try it out. if it did not work out for you, it would not be the end of the world. but what happened with this borrow and -- borrower and many others, they start school and it is not for them and they leave and they have a ton of debt and don't have the degree that will give them the salary to pay it off. some lawmakers have proposed making community college free as a way to mitigate that risk. you can go into community college, if it works for you. if it doesn't come you leave, no debt. if it does, maybe you go to a four-year school. by then, you are on the path to a degree. host: bill on the line from illinois. you have no student loans, bill. 1962, so graduated in i got it all paid off.

$500uition each year was for one year and $600 the next. i had a student loan of $1100. my first job, i made $330 a month gross. the second year, i made $340 a month gross. what i was hoping to get in was the thing about -- magazine and why blacks generally have less wealth and resources. 75% of black children are born to unwed parents who never get married. this differs greatly from what the magazine said from 1880 to about 1960. black adults got married or blacks got married at a higher rate than whites did. that something happened in 1960 or so. that was the time of a lot of welfare programs. darrell patrick moynihan, the

senator from new york, wrote the unwed motherhood rate was only about 50%. host: i want to give jillian a chance to address that. have you come across a factor in your research? guest: i have not. when we talk about the racial wealth gap, there is a history of policies. in america, that has made it difficult for americans to build wealth. for blackicult americans to buy a home. that's the sort of thing we're talking about here. host: david is calling from thousand oaks, california. one of the aspects that is often -- aspect that is often left out of this discussion is that much of the student loan debt falls on the backs of parents to pay off.

i never hear lawmakers are people in the media discuss that. oftentimes, these parents are going into their retirement years and have difficulty paying off these loans. guest: that's definitely true. starting to think more about that. there is a government loan product called parent plus loan. that is a loan that parents and take out. it is controversial because they can take out the cost of a degree. it doesn't have a lot the same protections as federal student loans, but it does have the same collection power. it can get parents into a bind. host: you can find her work at

tonight, five commencement speeches from across the country , starting with chair of the --ecommunications company she is followed by republican senator richard burr from north carolina, new york gubernatorial candidates cynthia next and, washington post publisher fred walt.and robert some that begins at nine eastern here on c-span. talking about the political news of the day. and former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. discusses tensions with north korea and iran over their nuclear programs. be sure to watch washington journal live at seven eastern sunday