With student loan debt skyrocketing in the U.S. and the federal government trying to remedy the situation, one small school in Michigan is coming up with its own solution.
According to Fox News, Adrian College will start promising graduates who do not earn more than $37,000 that the school will pay off their student loan debt. But students will need to first find a job where they work more a guaranteed minimum of 30 hours per week.
Jeffrey Docking, Adrian College's president, explained the system on the show "Fox and Friends" Sunday morning. Alumni currently making less than $20,000 will also qualify to have their monthly student loan payments taken over by the school.
Docking said Adrian has not set a limit for how much of a student's bill they will pay off and will place. Graduates making $20,000 to $37,000 per year will be placed on a sliding system to determine payment.
"You never know when the economy is going to go south. In '08 and '09, so many of those kids made the right decision, and there wasn't a job waiting for them," Docking said on the show. "And we're saying, 'We're going to take care of you, and we understand you don't want you to leave with a mortgage, and if you do, you're going to be OK if you can't find a job.'"
Thus far, Adrian has had a positive return on investment, as they needed some 30 students to pay off the $550,000 they have sent already, but they admitted 50. Adrian is a private, co-educational liberal arts college in Adrian, Mich. with an enrollment of 1,650 and an acceptance rate of 65 percent.
Studies have proven that a college degree allows people to make more money mid-career than their peers who do not have that same document. But the job market for recent college grads is still tough and student loan debt tends to cause people to put off important life decisions like buying a home and starting a family.
