The Debtonator Returns To Chicago

CHICAGO, IL -- After years of toiling away in libraries and lecture halls, students are graduating colleges across America with record numbers of credit card debt to go along with their worldly knowledge and prestigious degrees.

Furthermore, students graduating from high school are being targeted by the credit card companies, receiving offers through the mail and kiosks on college campuses, for their card programs. They are starting out in their professional lives already behind without an education in credit and debt management, simply because there is no required education in our schools to show students how to manage this popular financial tool.

According to Nellie Mae, a leading provider of higher education loans, a study of last year’s student loan applicants showed:

- Students held an average of three separate credit cards
- 78 percent of students had at least one credit card
- 32 percent of students had four or more credit cards
- 95 percent of graduate students carried credit cards

These figures are growing every year and more and more of our children are beginning their lives under a tremendous burden of unnecessary debt. I find it appalling that there is no real education required by our schools that teach credit and debt management and I personally plan to do something about it.

I intend to petition Governor Blagojevich in the fall to include, as required curriculum, credit and debt course’s prior to graduation. I will walk this petition the 184 miles to Springfield to present him with this petition and to generate public awareness to what has become an epidemic in our society.

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