Combating the Student Loan Debt Crisis by Educating Ohio’s High School Students

70% of Ohio graduates leave school with student loan debt. As a result, Ohio ranks eighth in the nation for proportion of college graduates with student loan debt. To add insult to injury, the amount of debt each graduate carries with them on graduation day averages more than $30,000 per graduate. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Ohioans default on their student loans at a higher rate than the national average.

To combat this growing debt crisis, the Ohio Attorney General’s Student Loan Debt Advisory Group has issued guidelines and recommendations for educating high school students on financing higher education. These recommendations include a requirement that all Ohio high school students take one semester of financial literacy education, with an emphasis on student loans. The Attorney General’s Office has also created a Student Loan Center on its website, which it describes as a “one-stop shop for everything a family needs to know to responsibly and successfully fund a college education.” See the full report from the Student Loan Debt Advisory Group here.