It’s a number that’s increasingly in the news: $1.6 trillion, the amount of student debt in the United States.

But what does it really mean?

That was the question put to Teachers College education economist Judith Scott-Clayton by National Public Radio’s Ari Shapiro on a recent edition of the show Consider This.

Scott-Clayton’s reply was that she’s not “freaked out” by that big number, much of which, she said, is actually “good debt” representing investments in education and in individuals’ future productivity.

What really concerns Scott-Clayton, Associate Professor of Economics & Education and Senior Research Scholar at TC’s Community College Research Center, is “the number of people who are taking out education debt and not seeing a return and ending up in default.”

Student loan default can have implications for your credit, your ability to borrow, and potentially even your ability to get an apartment or get a license for some professions in some states.

—Judith Scott-Clayton, Associate Professor of Economics & Education 

Many of those people are those with relatively small debts — which might seem counter-intuitive, but reflects the fact that these borrowers never finished their degrees.

“So, it’s the worst of both worlds,” Scott-Clayton said. “You have the debt without the degree.” That’s a far more likely scenario for Black students, she added, and it has ripple effects for years and even decades to come.

“Student loan default can have implications for your credit, your ability to borrow, and potentially even your ability to get an apartment or get a license for some professions in some states.”

[Read a story about Judith Scott-Clayton’s leadership of research on the effectiveness of the federal work-study