Navient was sued in Hinds County Chancery Court for “unfair, deceptive practices” regarding loans it originated and served for the federal government. The company is being sued and ordered to cease the practice. Penalties, which can reach as high as $10,000 each, are required by the state Consumer Protection Law. Navient, the largest student loan servicer in the country, denied any wrongdoing in the Mississippi suit. This was also the case in four other lawsuits brought by state attorneys general and the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Although the merits of this lawsuit are debatable there is no doubt about Mississippians’ dependence on student loans. Based on 2017, LendEDU data, Mississippi is ranked 20th for graduates with debt – 60%, according to LendEDU. Average debt is $29166. Hood attributes the large debt amounts to tuition increases (more than twice as many since 2004) and decreased state support for Mississippi’s public universities. In 2000, 56 percent of total revenues from the eight public universities was attributed to state support. According to data provided by the state Institutions of Higher Learning, it now accounts for 28 percent. Hood stated that students are the future of Mississippi and that companies in Mississippi will not tolerate the existence of students who have to pay for their education. Hood also stated that Mississippi’s high student debt rate is contributing to the so-called brain drain, which refers to college-educated young people leaving the state in search of work. Hood stated that Mississippi has lost more children to the brain drain in the last six years than any other state. Hood said, “You can’t return (after college) in a small city like Houston unless your parents own or have a professional degree.” Hood was speaking to census statistics that showed that Mississippi’s millennial population increased by 3.6% between 2010 and 2016. The state’s population fell by 35,000 over the same period. Hood believes that at least part of the decrease in state population can be attributed, Hood claims, to students who left the state to find better-paying jobs to pay student debt. LendEDU reports that 94 percent of Alcorn State’s 2016 class had student debt. The average amount was $35,077, which is the highest in the state. The LendEDU report also cites the University of Mississippi, where 48 percent of 2016’s class owes debt. This amounts to an average of $26,162. * Mississippi State University- 57% of the class of 2016 has debt. The average is $30,659. * Jackson State University- 86 per cent of the class of 2016 has credit, an average of $28,311. University of Southern Mississippi – 68% of the class of 2016 has debt. The average is $28,700. Millsaps College has 64 percent of the class of 2016, averaging $31,419. * Belhaven University has 79 percent, with a mean of $29,738. * Mississippi College – 68% of the class of 2016 has some debt, an average of $25,157 Blue Mountain College – 65% of the class of 2016 has student debt at an average of $20,483. The report did not include any other Mississippi schools. LendEDU, an online marketplace that sells multiple financial products, is a great option. According to the Center for Justice, Mississippi ranks fourth in the nation for defaults on student loans. Charles Lee, Center for Justice consumer protection director, mentioned Ashlyn Booker from Jackson, who has been paying $300 per monthly for approximately 13 years on her student loans, but has only paid $6,000 of the principal.