Student loan defaults hit Midlands - Maggie O'Brien, WORLD-HERALD

Nebraskans and Iowans are in the thick of what many are calling the next big debt crisis: student loan default. The U.S. Department of Education says 5.6 percent of Nebraskans defaulted on their federal student loans in 2009, the most recent year for which numbers are available. Though well below the national rate of 8.8 percent, it still is an increase from 5 percent in 2008 and 3.9 percent in 2007. Iowa's default rate in 2009 was much higher: 11.5 percent. The year before, it was 9.9 percent; in 2007, 8.2 percent. Total outstanding student debt in the United States has passed $1 trillion, more than the nation owes on credit cards. Student loans are now the second-largest source of U.S. household debt behind mortgages.