The Wall Street Journal has a great article out today about the explosive increase in the total amount of federal loans borrowed by all students. The total for 2008-09 is 25% higher than 2007-08, and this represents the largest in recent memory. The largest increases in the past couple decades was in 1994-95, when total increased by 17%.

The silver lining in these numbers is that they represent an increase in college enrollment. Unfortunately, these numbers are also just the latest evidence that the recession has been hitting young people hard.

It has been particularly difficult for young workers without postsecondary education to find work, and many have decided that their best bet is to go to college in order to improve their long term prospects. And with so many families facing lay-offs, foreclosures, and other financial disasters, many students that would have received help from their parents must borrow more, even as they often qualify for additional federal student aid.

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