Student Debt Solutions: Finance Grand Challenges Event 

Rapidly increasing tuition rates at higher education institutions over the last several decades have resulted in a big problem-one worth $1.65 trillion in financial aid debt for millions of students and their families. Now policymakers are asking: How did we get here, and what equitable solutions exist to help alleviate the financial burden of higher education?
Those questions served as the backdrop of the latest installment in the Finance Grand Challenges Speakers Series at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Tuesday’s event presented a candid, nonpartisan discussion on the pros and cons of student loan forgiveness and offered an examination of why these loan balances have grown.
Moderator: Michael Faulkender, Dean's Professor of Finance, Former Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, Treasury Department
Guests: Sandy Baum, Nonresident Senior Fellow, the Urban Institute and Professor Emerita of Economics, Skidmore College
Diane Jones, Former Acting Undersecretary, Department of Education for Postsecondary Education