Over the last several years, the media, higher education researchers, and an increasing number of policymakers have pointed to the growing levels of individual and aggregate student loan debt in the United States. At approximately $1.2 trillion, outstanding student loans have surpassed credit cards as the second largest form of consumer debt in this country, second only to home mortgages. Student loans now make up six percent of the national debt, representing a growth of 20 percent since the end of 2011. In assessing what has largely been perceived as a student loan crisis, many have placed blame on institutions and a precipitous rise in tuition rates. Other complicating factors for current and former students, however, include stagnating federal and state grant funding, low graduation rates, insufficient financial literacy, and an economy struggling to improve after the recent recession. Increasingly, these factors have lead to dangerously high initial debt-to-income ratios for many student borrowers, resulting in rising student loan default rates across the U.S. Nationwide trends do not always correspond to the experiences of students and borrowers within individual states, a fact of particular relevance for Texas. Of the national outstanding student debt load, Texans hold approximately $70 billion. This situation results from the state's reliance on federal nongrant aid, a high percentage of two-year students, and high postsecondary noncompletion rates, and leads to some of the highest default rates in the nation. In the following report, the author highlights the state of financial aid, higher education completion, and financial literacy in Texas, followed by a review of the current job market and the individual and aggregate economic effects of increasing student loan debt. Based on these findings, the author provides a list of recommendations to help Texans build healthier financial futures free of student loan default.