Latest numbers on the National Debt in nice pie chart form. Might be helpful for your class.

Here is a handy-dandy pie chart I found HERE that shows the proportion of the US National Debt owed to various entities.  This is the most current reading of the headline National Debt that the US Treasury posts monthly.

The total US debt is $17.577 Trillion dollars.

Some say the National Debt is an issue of big concern and doom and gloom will follow.  Some say it is irrelevant and its impact is negligible.

The real impact probably falls somewhere in-between those tow extremes.  How is that for hedging?

Me? I know enough not to bring a knife (my ignorance) to a gunfight (high level politics/economics) and have will stay on my bar stool and let others fight it out.  :)

Of that total debt 33.5% ($5.888 Trillion) is owed to foreign entities, whether they be foreign individuals, businesses, private financial institutions, Central banks and/or governments.

The remaining 66.5% ($11.688 Trillion) is owed to US citizens, businesses, private financial institutions, US Federal Reserve or the various US government trust funds (Social Security, Civil Service, Military Retirement fund, etc).

The graphic below is the same one except I covered in RED the portion owed to foreign entities and in YELLOW the portion owed to US Government and Domestic creditors.

The next one I just put both side by side for visual comparison.