Millionaire vows to cover cost of graduates\' student debt

Robert smith is announcing he is creating a grant program to elimnate the student debt for more than 400 recent morehouse college graduates.

The total cost of their education?

40-million dollars.

K-i-m-t news three's jeremiah wilcox joins us at the universisty of minnesota rochester - where he spoke to recent graduates about student loan debt - jeremiah?xxx student loans-lintro-3 that's right i'm here at u-m-r where the halls are mostly empty because many students have just graduated.

Student loans-lintro-2 they will soon be forced to start paying off their own student loans.

I spoke to students today about how debt relief would help them as they start the next chapter of their lives.xxx student loans-pkg-2 student loans-pkg-4 sot: we're going to put a little fuel in your bus my family is making a grant to elimante their student loans.

Vo:cheers erupted as morehouse college's class of 20-19 graduated debt-free.

Nat: it sent shivers up my spine vo:tina paulk is a student at the university of minnesota.

She's working on her masters degree in occupitional therapy.

She knows the stress of paying back student loans.

Student loans-pkg-5 sot: i had a considerable amount of student loans and looking back at it.

Its quite a few things i wish ive done differently.

I wish i payed more off right away.

Student loans-pkg-6 vo:paying off student loan debt is a national issue.

The education debt is 1.5 trillion dollars.

That's more than credit cards at 850-billion and auto loans at 1.25-trillion.

Student loans-pkg-8 reporter: let's break this down, according to the institute for college access and success 2/3 of students in 2017 graduated from college with debt.

And the average amount was over $28,000.

And that's an increase from about $13,000 in 1996 but here minnesota the average student loan debt is over $31,000.

That's simply a lot of money to pay back.

Student loans-pkg-7 vo:trenton cantiz just walked across the stage and plans to head to the sunshine state to continue to study healthcare.

He says a billionaire paying off student loans pushes morehouse students onto the next chapter in their lives.

Student loans-pkg-9 sot: their next investment could be in themselves maybe now that they don't have to be putting money into their student loans they can be putting it into a different loan.

For a house or a car or something so i think that's really awsome that they're being able to kind of...like almost skip that part and go to the next part of adulthood.

/ / student loans-ltag-2 according to the institute for college access and success - minnesota ranks ninth in the nation when it comes to the highest average student loan debt.

Iowa ranks 20th with the average student debt of over 29- thousand dollars.

Reporting live in rochester jeremiah wilcox kimt news three.

/ thank you jeremiah.

Each of the students we spoke to today gave in-depth tips on reducing your debt while in college.

Student loans-tag-2 head to k-i-m-t- dot-com to find out ways students can reach graduation on a budget.

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