Tackling student loan debt

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) - It's a trillion dollar debt and we're not talking about the federal deficit.

"Default: The Student Loan Documentary" was screened Tuesday night at UMass Amherst.

Total student debt in the U.S. is now almost a trillion dollars.

That equals 70% of the nation's debt.

UMass graduate Tristan Brosnan told 22News, "it's really become the next financial crisis in this country. It's a massive bubble. People are defaulting on their payments and it's going to explode in the future as we've seen with the housing crisis."

"The banks have sort of an incentive to keep you going into forbearance or default because they can actually make a bigger profit if you continue to defer your loans," Anastasia Wilson told 22News.

The average UMass graduate leaves school with more than $23,000 dollars in debt.