  {"id":147074,"date":"2021-08-26T12:45:35","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T22:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=147074"},"modified":"2023-08-03T14:41:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T00:41:04","slug":"hawaii-graduates-student-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/08\/26\/hawaii-graduates-student-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawai\u02bbi graduates among nation\u2019s best on student debt, thanks to <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr>"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/uh-commencement-students-gnrc.jpg\" alt=\"3 students in commencement gown with sunset behind them\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-92121\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/uh-commencement-students-gnrc.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/uh-commencement-students-gnrc-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/uh-commencement-students-gnrc-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>WalletHub has once again confirmed that <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> college graduates are among the least likely to leave school with debt. And for those who do graduate with debt, they owe among the least in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Among the states and territories, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> enjoys the 2nd lowest percentage of college graduates with any debt and is the 3rd lowest when it comes to student debt as a percentage share of income, according to a report by WalletHub. The personal-finance website released its report <a href=\"https:\/\/wallethub.com\/edu\/best-and-worst-states-for-student-debt\/7520\">2021\u2019s States with the Most and Least Student Debt<\/a> on August 25.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;A big reason we are among the very best when it comes to student debt is the affordability of the 10-campus University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> public higher education system,&rdquo; said <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong>. &ldquo;Our regents and administration have committed to tough choices as we have frozen and even decreased tuition over these past challenging years. Coupled with our high quality education, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> provides an outstanding return on investment for our students and <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaiip20.org\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> P&#8211;20<\/a>, about two-thirds of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> high school graduates attend a University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> campus.<\/p>\n<p>The total outstanding college-loan balances in the United States was at <a href=\"https:\/\/studentaid.gov\/data-center\/student\/portfolio\">$1.59 trillion<\/a> at the end of the second quarter of 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That\u2019s an average of $37,000 for each of the 42.9 million borrowers.<\/p>\n<p>It was not all positive news for <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span>. The state rose to first in the nation for the highest percentage of student loan balances past due or in default. This was likely due to the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s economy, among the hardest hit in the nation, which WalletHub noted has pushed <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> to the third highest average unemployment rate for those aged 25 to 34. In addition, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> ranked last in state grants and student work opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WalletHub has once again confirmed that <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Âé¶¹´«Ã½<\/span> college graduates are among the least likely to leave school with debt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[735,61,62,63,64,65,71,14,9,60,947,59,1013,66],"class_list":["post-147074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-campus-recognition","tag-hawaii-community-college","tag-honolulu-community-college","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-kauai-community-college","tag-leeward-community-college","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-manoa","tag-maui-college","tag-uh-system","tag-uh-west-oahu","tag-university-system-recognition","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147074"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181387,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147074\/revisions\/181387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}