不僅是學(xué)生，家庭也感受到了學(xué)生貸款危機的壓力

Families, Not Just Students, Feel The Weight Of The Student Loan Crisis

不僅是學(xué)生，家庭也感受到了學(xué)生貸款危機的壓力

For many college students settling into their dorms this month, the path to campus — and paying for college — started long ago. And it likely involved their families.

對于本月剛搬進宿舍的許多大學(xué)生來說，通往校園的道路——以及支付大學(xué)學(xué)費——很久以前就開始了。而且好像涉及到了他們的家庭。

The pressure to send kids to college, coupled with the realities of tuition, has fundamentally changed the experience of being middle class in America, says Caitlin Zaloom, an anthropologist and associate professor at New York University. It's changed the way that middle class parents raise their children, she adds.

紐約大學(xué)人類學(xué)家、副教授凱特琳扎盧姆說，送孩子上大學(xué)的壓力，加上學(xué)費這一現(xiàn)實問題，已經(jīng)從根本上改變了美國中產(chǎn)階級的經(jīng)歷。她補充說，這改變了中產(chǎn)階級父母撫養(yǎng)孩子的方式。

Zaloom interviewed dozens of families taking out student loans for her new book, Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost. She defines those families as middle class because they make too much to qualify for federal aid — but too little to pay the full cost of a degree at most colleges.

扎盧姆采訪了幾十個申請學(xué)生貸款的家庭，為她的新書《負債:家庭如何不惜一切代價上大學(xué)》做準備。她將這些家庭定義為中產(chǎn)階級，因為他們掙的錢很多，而沒有獲得聯(lián)邦資助的資格，但對于大多數(shù)大學(xué)的全部學(xué)費，又因為太少而無法支付。

How would you describe the world of student debt?

你如何描述學(xué)生債務(wù)的世界?

Families have really been transformed by debt, and really by the problem of dreaming about sending a kid to college and trying very hard to pay for it — oftentimes from the very earliest moments of a child's life. I think what we don't take account of, nearly enough, is what that experience is like. That's the thing that I think that we need to be focusing on.

家庭真的被債務(wù)改變了，真的被夢想送孩子上大學(xué)并努力支付學(xué)費的問題改變了——通常從孩子剛出生的時刻就開始了。我認為，我們沒有充分考慮到的是，這種經(jīng)歷是什么樣的。這就是我認為我們需要關(guān)注的事情。

You argue in the book that the idea of going to college is pervasive in American life.

你在書中說上大學(xué)的想法在美國生活中很普遍。

It is pervasive. That message is coming at families from every direction: that being a success in America depends upon the ability to get into college, to get an education and to graduate. But that itself depends on the ability to pay, which thrusts us right into the paradox of it all — which is that on the one hand, young adults and the parents who support them have this very clear goal about getting a college education. On the other hand, that is going to cost them dearly.

它是普遍存在的。這一信息正從四面八方傳達到各個家庭:在美國取得成功取決于能否上大學(xué)、接受教育和畢業(yè)。但這本身取決于支付能力，這讓我們陷入了一個矛盾的境地——一方面，年輕人和支持他們的父母有一個非常明確的目標，那就是接受大學(xué)教育。另一方面，這將使他們付出昂貴的代價。

And this affects people of different races differently?

這對不同種族的人有不同的影響嗎?

Absolutely. It it does not affect everyone the same way at all. And too often we focus on big aggregate numbers that lump everybody together. The $1.5 trillion of outstanding debt, the average of $30,000 for undergraduate borrowers ... Those numbers put everyone together in the same group. But of course and predictably, women and people of color bear the burden more than more than their white, male peers.

絕對有影響。它根本不會以同樣的方式影響每個人。我們太過關(guān)注將所有人聚集在一起這一龐大的總數(shù)。1.5萬億美元的未償債務(wù)，平均3萬美元的本科借貸者…這些數(shù)字把所有人放在同一組。但當然，可以預(yù)見的是，女性和有色人種承受的壓力比與他們同齡的白人男性更大。

They graduate with more debt. Takes them longer to pay it off. They're more likely to go into default.

他們畢業(yè)時負債累累。他們需要更長的時間來還清債務(wù)。他們更有可能違約。

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel?

在（負債）隧道的盡頭有光嗎?

Parents and students are totally committed to higher education. They are so committed to college and they are so committed to getting an education to realize their kid's potential, to become citizens of the world, to make the world a better place.

父母和學(xué)生完全致力于高等教育。他們?nèi)绱藞?zhí)著于上大學(xué)，如此執(zhí)著于接受教育，以實現(xiàn)他們孩子的潛力，成為世界公民，讓世界變得更美好。

What I would do about it, first and foremost. is to start funding the public higher education systems in this country so that they could actually be a reasonable low-cost or free-tuition option for families.

我首先要做的是，開始資助這個國家的公共高等教育系統(tǒng)，這樣他們就可以成為家庭的一個合理的低成本或免費的選擇。