“What I would like to do... once I take care of all my kids' student loans, is buy a red 1965 Mustang and fully restore it.”
Student debt is depleting rural America
Source Date:
Thursday, January 17, 2019
College students from rural areas are moving to big cities for higher wages to help pay off their student loans, according to new research from the Federal Reserve.
Why it matters: A "rural brain drain" has been pulling college-educated people out of rural America and into urban areas, deepening an educational and political divide that is increasingly coming to define the country.
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The average age of the U.S. rural population is going up, and the share of prime-working-age people is going down. Fewer people have college degrees, and more are unemployed.
In the past, experts have explained this dynamic as a lifestyle choice. But in its new analysis, the Fed points to student loans as an additional factor in the gravitational pull away from rural areas.