Rising Education Costs Drive Student Loans & Consolidation
Criticism and back-patting regarding the new bill congress is going to pass regarding federal student loans and aid aside, no one is doing anything to subsidize colleges or regulator the incredible explosion in cost of education that we have witnessed over the last 20 years.
Colleges raise tuition to "cover rising costs" and therefore student loans and expenses rise as well driving our graduating students deeper into debt. It doesn't take an economist to tell you that the level of debt among our college graduates has massive ramifications across our entire economy.
The 35% rise in inflation-adjusted tuition and fees since the 2001-2002 school year has fueled an $85 billion student loan & consolidation industry according to bloomberg.com.
Something needs to be done about the rising cost of education in this country. The government needs to regulate it or subsidize colleges and probably both. Once again we are dealing with big business. Every politician in the country would be skewered for even mentioning the reigning in of cost of education in this country. Moreover families and students seem to be putting up with it, when encouraging your child to attend the best school he or she can get into it's pretty hard to say, "oh that one is just too expensive."
As long as the cost of education continues to rise at a ridiculous rate our students with continue to graduate with exponentially more debt burden. The student loan and student loan consolidation industry will fight any and all regulation of cost of education right along with every college and university in this country. We only care about our citizens education if we can turn a tidy profit, yeah it's capitalism but unbridled capitalism is a scary thing.
