State and local public health workers have an average debt of $48,000, although many have higher burdens.
Photo by Liubomyr Vorona, courtesy of iStockphoto
Student loan debt is common among the nation’s state and local public health workforce, and more than 40% of workers still pay off their loans, according to a new study published in APHA. American Journal of Public Health finds.
The research, published online in January, revealed that staff working in public health in state and local governments had an average debt of $48,000, although some had much larger burdens. Debt workers with a doctorate degree averaged a loan balance of $86,000, followed by those with master’s degrees, at $67,000, and bachelor’s degrees, at $38,500. Nearly a quarter of workers with loans still owed about 75% of their balance.
While about 16% of American adults overall carry a student loan balance, public health workers’ average debt levels were higher compared to the general population, according to the study, which used data from the 2024 round of the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey.
Also concerning: Government public health workers with higher student loan debt were more likely to leave the country. People who said they planned to leave their jobs within the next year had an average debt of $24,000, about 8% more than those who were not considering leaving their jobs.
When the researchers examined their findings by race and ethnicity, they found large gaps in how much government public health workers owed. About 35% of Black employees and 20% of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander employees said they had a balance greater than $40,000, compared with up to 17% of White, Asian and Hispanic employees. Black workers averaged a median loan balance of $60,500, compared to about $44,500 for white workers.
Younger workers were more likely to owe money than older workers, and more than a third of workers ages 35 and younger still owed between $20,000 and $100,000 on their loans, the study found. Women were likely to owe more than men. Student loan debt also varied by job level, with public health managers and supervisors owing more than executive-level workers.
The findings come as the nation continues to struggle with public health personnel shortages within the government public health workforce. Previous research has found that many of the 45,000 U.S. public health students who graduate each year choose private or nonprofit jobs over state and local government jobs. Large loan balances are likely a contributing factor, said study author Jonathon Leider, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.
“Inside and outside of government public health, rising levels of student loan debt are directly associated with staff seeking higher-paying positions,” he said. The health of the nation.
Repaying student loans can help boost public health capacity, and eliminating or reducing student debt may motivate some public health professionals to choose government jobs over higher-paying jobs.
But the Trump administration is dismantling American student loan relief programs that have helped thousands of students. Additionally, Grad PLUS loans, which for 20 years offered federal financial aid to graduate students, will end in July. At the same time, the U.S. Department of Education’s redefinition of “professional degrees” in January – which omits public health, physical therapy, social work, nursing and other degrees – imposes new federal limits on student loans.
The changes will likely reduce applications to public health schools, Leider predicts.
To provide a minimum set of public health services, the country’s state and local government public health departments need an 80% increase in staff, according to a 2021 analysis by the de Beaumont Foundation. A shortage of epidemiologists, nurses, operations support workers and other professions is making it difficult for the public health system to carry out key public health functions, such as disease control research, the Government Accountability Office said in a report last year.
“It’s a difficult time for public health,” Leider said. “I think things will get worse before they get better, but I hope they get better. Just like police or firefighters, public health is necessary to ensure we are all safe.”
For more information about the AJPH study, visit www.ajph.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
