New numbers from the College Board show that federal student loan disbursements—the total amount borrowed by students and received by schools—in the 2009–2010 academic years grew about 14% over the previous year to $ billion. At the student level, class of 2009 college seniors carried an average of $25,000 in students loans (College Board 2010). The amount of money students borrow has long been on the rise. With recent economic downfalls, this is even more of a problem than in the past. Nearly 9% of 2009 college graduates had a postgraduation job status of unemployed (Project on Student Debt 2010). Not surprisingly, student loan borrower default rates are.
