'Default: The Student Loan Documentary' Trailer Highlights a Major Issue for Millennials

On Tuesday, Mike Connery at Future Majority linked to and quoted a post at Tapped that summarized the first ten pieces of legislation on which the Senate will vote. The topic of student debt was buried deep within the description of S.7:

S.7 -- Education Opportunity Act of 2009. "To expand educational opportunities for all Americans by increasing access to high-quality early childhood education and after school programs, advancing reform in elementary and secondary education, strengthening mathematics and science instruction, and ensuring that higher education is more affordable." An education omnibus bill that will no doubt be split up into separate pieces of legislation.

As 2009 arrives and legislative priorities fall into place behind the stimulus bill, a trailer for a documentary on student debt has come along that captures the struggles many recent college grads are facing in paying student loans while simultaneously weathering this rough economy. Default -- the title of the film -- explores the stories of borrowers whose lives have been turned upside down by skyrocketing interest rates and a poor economy. Here's the trailer:

A summary of the film at its website explains the problem.

In 2005 private student loans were exempted of ALL consumer protections. No matter when their loans were taken, many borrowers now find themselves in a paralyzing predicament of repaying two, three or multiple times the original amount borrowed, with no bankruptcy protection, no cap on fees and penalties and no recourse to the law. The consequences are dire, with stories of borrowers in financial and emotional ruin.

Beyond these personal accounts, DEFAULT will explain the differences between federal and private student loans, a subject often overlooked by colleges and high school counselors. It will also give detail on the rise of the private lending industry and of college debt.

While the media has focused on the disaster that sub-prime mortgages have turned out to be, only superficial attention has been given to financial giants which have been profiting by approving loans to low-income students with variable interest rates up to 25%.

The woman speaking near the end of the trailer about the pressure on our generation to step in for retiring Boomers in fields like law, medicine, and engineering is absolutely correct -- the price tag for not only the education for those careers, but for the loans students have to take out to finance that education, is harming us. In the last ten years, seniors with student loans saw their debt more than double from $9,250 to $19,200, a 108% increase (58% after factoring in inflation). Keeping in mind that tuition has increased at public colleges and universities from 2001 to 2006 by 40% after inflation, many students may not even be able to get to their careers in one piece.

While we need to remember that not every Millennial is a college graduate or student, this is an excellent example of an issue that directly impacts us. While the issue would probably be best dealt with by a younger Congress (not the oldest one ever), we have no choice but to work with what we have. We should be pushing our representatives and senators to do something about this issue, letting them know we're not going to forget about it.

With skyrocketing interest rates and disappearing consumer protections in the student loan industry facing us, it's up to us to repair the problem. Contact your representative and/or senator now.