Map: How MN compares to other states in student debt, defaults

The Wall Street Journal has put out a map based on data from the New York Fed. It pretty much mirrors what we’ve been hearing from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education: Minnesota students have a higher rate of debt, but have lower default rates.

Read the Journal story here.

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.

reggie

Could you unpack this? What’s the breakdown in debt level and default rates between for-profit, private non-profit, and public institutions? From what I’ve been reading, it looks like the majority of the problems (total debt load, degree completion rates, and defaults) are in the for-profit sector. If the data supports that, is it because a public education is (relatively) less costly, because students attending private non-profits tend to be from more financially stable families, a combination of these two, or some other factors?