Our newest blogger is Rob B.

My name is Rob B. I am 29 years old and I have $27,000 in student loan debt. My wife and I have two children; between us we will be paying for, at least in part, five degrees. Yeah, college affordability is a big concern of mine.

We live in Chicago, Illinois; we moved here to come back to the Midwest and be near family. Three years ago, I decided to go back to school to pursue a career in education. I just earned a Bachelor’s in Secondary Education and History from Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU). I had hoped that it would only take me two years to do the work necessary to gain certification, but I felt it was best to pursue that double major. In this way I would be qualified to teach several subjects; given the job market, it seems another year was a wise investment.

NEIU is the most affordable state institution in Illinois, yet the total bill for the average class has been just over $500 for me. I had to take 94 credit hours, which cost about $16,000. Throw in a few thousand dollars in textbooks and I owe a lot of money.

I was able to get one scholarship out of the dozen or so that I applied for; it bought me a laptop and some school supplies. Almost all scholarships asked for tax information; only one scholarship took cost of living into account. My wife’s and my combined income leaves us comfortable as long as we are frugal, but that meant I was unable to get most scholarships. This also precluded me from getting a Pell grant, which, even at its current level, would have taken care of almost three quarters of my school expenses.

Many students are able to get help from their parents. My parents paid for a degree work in film, but this time was different. The choice to move to education is a career change for me. It didn’t seem fair to ask for more from my family, especially since my dad is helping to pay for the three other children. The only answer for me was federal loans.

I kept working at the restaurant, sometimes overtime, in order to pay my living expenses, but it was a huge struggle to get anything resembling a regular sleep schedule, even before the family additions. I had to stop working during my student teaching, so my wife and I dug into our modest savings in order to take care of our family’s current needs. We were originally going to purchase a home, as we’ve been renting for all of our adult lives, but we’ve had to put that off in order to afford for me to go back to school.

In four months, I’ll have to start repaying my loans. In order to pay them back in 10 years, we’ll have to make $310 payments; we will pay over $38,000 for my education. We have started accounts for each of our son’s college savings, but I’m afraid it will be pretty difficult to make the necessary installments to avoid going into debt for their education.

I anticipate earning about $40,000 a year if I am lucky enough to find a job in the city of Chicago or in the surrounding area. However, I am also looking in the central part of Illinois, where my earnings expectations are much lower. A few of the districts that I am looking at only pay first year teachers $27,000. I’ll be lucky to make the payments on my own debt let alone save for the education of my children.

Of course, I worry about these things, but right now I even more worried about finding a teaching job in the first place. I graduated with a great GPA, did lots of volunteer work, and have nice recommendations, but the job market is so tight right now! What really has me worried is what’s going to happen to if I have to start making payments on my loan as a substitute teacher, where at best, I can expect to earn $125 a day. In order to stay afloat financially I’m going to have to continue to work at the restaurant on weekends and maybe some weeknights, making it all the harder to actually find my first teaching position. I’m starting to regret taking those loans.