After a false start as a computer science major and an 18-month break to work, Jeremy Askim — like a lot of college students — hasn’t taken the most direct route to his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

And like most Colorado college graduates, he’ll take more than his diploma with him when he finishes in May. He’ll carry close to $30,000 in student-loan debt — a notch above both the national and state averages.

“Sure, I worry about it,” said Askim, 29, while taking a break between classes on the Auraria campus. “I need to finish up and get a better job. I toyed with getting a master’s degree, but I really don’t want to go any further in education until I pay off some debt.”

From community colleges to four-year institutions, many Colorado students have left school lugging a heavier financial burden than they did five years ago. About two-thirds of them graduated with student- loan debt, with the average 2011 bachelor’s degree recipient owing $23,662, according to the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

A nationwide snapshot by the nonprofit Project on Student Debt found that for the class of 2010, those who graduated with debt owed an average of $25,250. The study ranked Colorado 32nd nationally, with an average of $22,017, well below New Hampshire’s high of $31,048.

But the wave of student-loan obligations comes with another disturbing trend — rising default rates fueled by rising unemployment among young college graduates.

With 11.5 percent of its student-loan customers defaulting, Colorado ranks third among all U.S. states and territories, and has tracked higher than the national rate over the past several years. State officials attribute that, in part, to data recording methods that can attach far-flung students in online programs to a single state.

But they also note that — as in many states — growing enrollment, declining revenue for higher education and increasing demand for financial aid have combined to raise costs and lead to higher student debt.

“This is complicated by the fact that the economic rebound has been slow, which means that many recent college graduates cannot find employment with wages high enough to cover basic living expenses and debt,” said Chad Marturano, director of legislative affairs for the state Department of Higher Education. “The result is higher default rates.”

One of the greatest financial risk factors for students, said attorney Deanne Loonin of the National Consumer Law Center, is failure to complete a degree. The debt doesn’t go away even as the potential for higher earning power dissolves when students abandon their goals.

“That can be true for all kinds of reasons,” Loonin said. “Lack of academic preparation, the school didn’t deliver as promised, life situations — that’s one of the biggest real drivers of default and delinquency.”

In the early 1990s, the national default rate spiked over 22 percent before receding over the next 15 years. But the current scope of the problem, even with a relatively modest 8.8 percent — and rising — national default rate, far exceeds previous trouble.

Higher enrollment, more for-profit schools that produce some of the highest default rates and the growth of private education loans — plus a slow-to-rebound economy — all factor into a problem some compare to the recent mortgage crisis.

Loonin notes three more elements that have converged: the rising cost of higher education, a shift from reliance on grants to reliance on loans and the government’s increased debt- collection powers.

“So, even people with small amounts of debt, if they get in trouble, there’s no escape,” Loonin said. “So, the margin of error for people who don’t succeed the first time around is much smaller than it has ever been.”

Even President Barack Obama’s proposed relief, which includes capping federally backed loan payments at 10 percent of disposable income, hasn’t been finalized and wouldn’t help everyone, she added.

Stephen Berken, a Denver bankruptcy attorney, estimates that at least half of the clients he sees are in default on student loans.

“It’s the typical hope, dream, wishing on the come that by the time I get out of school, I’ll have a degree, a job waiting for me, and I’ll be able to pay back what I’m getting into,” he said. “Especially among the kids, the perception is that it’s almost like a gift. Not that it’s free money, but you’re dealing with 18- to 20-year olds. They don’t understand.”

A recent national survey of bankruptcy lawyers found that nearly one-fourth of them had seen their student-loan cases jump by more than 50 percent, according to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

“And you can’t get rid of it in bankruptcy,” Berken said. “Ever. The joke is there’s treason, murder, kidnapping and student loans — no statute of limitations.”

Federal student loans come with enhanced collection powers that can even tap into government benefits like Social Security — a provision that has come back to haunt some parents who have co-signed their kids’ student loans.

“Anytime I have the chance, I tell parents never to co-sign on student loans,” said Bill Henry, a Castle Rock lawyer who estimates that 80 to 90 percent of his bankruptcy cases involve student debt. “To ultimately be responsible for it long after you have the ability to make an income and recoup from where you are, it can be a disaster. We’ve seen it before.”

State lawmakers will consider bills this year that would indirectly attack the issue of student debt on two fronts, said Marturano.

One would aim to streamline remedial instruction by providing students supplemental options, such as tutoring, while they attend a four-year school. That could shorten the time to completion of a degree — and ideally lower a student’s potential debt.

Another would create a statewide standard for allowing students who transfer from community college to a four-year institution to be alerted when they have reached the threshold for an associate’s degree. They could then obtain that degree through the community college and have at least some credentials to show for their investment, whether or not they completed a four-year degree.

“Because of the difficult financial circumstances we’re finding ourselves in, we’re trying to move toward more completion-based policies as opposed to just funding enrollments,” Marturano said. “So, we want to try to develop practices that reward outcomes.”

Askim, the Metro State chemistry major, figures that if he can continue to live on a “student-level income” after landing a decent job after graduation, he might get out from under his student debt in a couple of years.

By his current calculation, higher education has been worth the price.

“From the research I’ve done, I’m kind of optimistic,” Askim said. “I know there are jobs. I just don’t know how many people I’ll be competing against.”

Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com