Students With Less Than $5,000 In College Loan Debt Most Likely Group To Default

05:54

July 25, 2016

People walk on the Columbia University campus on July 1, 2013 in New York City. An interest rate hike kicks in today for student loans, an increase for 7 million students. Congress left town at the end of last week failing to prevent rates on new Stafford student loans increasing from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The average student debt burden in the U.S. is about $30,000. But Derek Thompson of The Atlantic writes that the biggest default threat is on smaller loans.

A new White House report found that loans of less than $10,000 accounted for nearly two-thirds of all defaults in 2011. Fewer than one in six undergraduate borrowers with $5,000 in initial debt completed college, a lower rate than higher borrowers.

Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti speaks with Thompson about the problems facing students who borrow smaller amounts.

Guest

Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic. He tweets @DKThomp.

This segment aired on July 25, 2016.