By Heather Graves
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – Student loan debt is a struggle many Wisconsinites know all too well – some owing thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“At first I thought that I was alone,” said Wisconsin State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski. “This issue is quite personal to me as well. I graduated with $75,000 in student loan debt and was paying 9 percent interest. Literally, I was paying like $1,000 a month in interest alone, and I remember thinking to myself how can I get ahead if I can’t even keep up. I was embarrassed to talk about my debt for a very long time.”
The Student Loan Refinancing Study Task Force is hoping to help ease this burden by trying to understand student debt in Wisconsin and come up with ideas on how to solve the problem many Wisconsinites are struggling with.
The task force, which was created through a recommendation from Gov. Tony Evers, held the last of four roundtable discussions on the topic at the Brown County Central Library on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
Previous discussions took place in Wausau, Milwaukee and La Crosse.
Godlewski, Wisconsin Higher Educational Aids Board Executive Secretary Connie Hutchison and Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions Secretary-Designee Kathy Blumenfeld, as well as a college affordability specialist and representatives from Ascendium Education Group, Northwest Technical College, Green Bay Area Public School District and the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay – Catholic Charities all took part in the discussion.
A handful of local elected officials and community members also attended the discussion.
Blumenfeld said the roundtable discussions are just a part of a larger effort to understand the scope of the student debt problem in Wisconsin.
The task force will now take the information gathered at the discussions and look for solutions.
“We can read all the statistics and all the reports that are out there, but hearing the stories really brings it to life and makes it real,” Blumenfeld said. “The task force will really roll up our sleeves and look at what’s happening in other states and best practices and get creative in what we can do here in Wisconsin to solve the problems.”
Godlewski said Wisconsin has some of the worst student debt in the country – totaling a whopping $24 billion.
“What Connecticut did or Minnesota, doesn’t mean that is going to work for Wisconsin,” Godlewski said. “We want to make sure our approach is pragmatic and it fits Wisconsin in the way we need it to fit.”
Hutchison said the governor has asked the task force to have recommendations for him by Oct. 1, 2020.
“This is a very difficult problem and we are going to take the time to listen, and in addition to gathering information coming up to solutions, but that will take until October 2020,” Hutchinson said. “And then hopefully after that we will have some resolution moving forward in the State of Wisconsin.”