Check it out. I'm giving away an electronic copy for free.

http://www.edububble.com

Check it out. I'm giving away an electronic copy for free.

http://www.edububble.com

Your post chilled me to the bone, as that is the situation I find myself in; a debt that will last thirty years, and I’m 54 now. I’ll be eighty – four, if I live, when the debt is paid in full. Many Americans are trapped in what I call ‘perpetual debt’, a financial concept unthinkable thirty years ago, now it is the norm. I’ve seen blogs of degreed indebted thirty – somethings, who are carrying debt that will easily see them into their sixties. They’re either seeing the salaries of their chosen fields hardly keeping up with the cost of living, let alone providing extra money to pay on the debt comfortably (and if credit card debt is added to this, the financial situation becomes purgatory), or they can’t find work in their field and must take less just to survive. They, my self included, feel that the so – called American Dream has vanished, replaced with a treadmill.

The irony for me is that I work at a University as a librarian and I’m paid a pittance. I personally know students who are concerned about future college debt after graduation. One girl, graduating with a BA in Education after seven years, is staring down the barrel of $75,000.00. If she decides to stay in Louisiana she’ll carry that financial burden for years.

There was a time when college was the ticket to a higher standard of living, though there was never any guarantee of this, a number of generations prospered with their degrees, without the indebtedness of today. Now a college education is a mere roll of the dice, promising nothing, or worse. I agree, vocational school is the better and more effective route to take. The cost is reduced and if you choose a trade in great demand, you could make a decent living without a financial millstone around your income.

The bubble doesn't exist in college in general, but in those disciplines that don't provide the needed return on the investment. Engineers have no problem paying off a $200K education, relative to what they could earn without a college degree, but there are far more social science and humanities degrees coming out for the market to support. Instead most of these graduates are going into general purpose careers that don't discriminate on the type of degree earned (and it's debatable if one is even necessary for the job in many cases).

Many students are going into college without the investment in mind but are caught in the mindset that a degree (no matter what it is) is required for most jobs. There's a lot of truth in that and most students and parents see the college degree as little more than a tax to enter the job market. But does a $200K investment make sense for someone to take a $25K per year job, that might take 20+ years to pay off? We really need employers to be more honest with their educational needs, universities to be more honest with the supply of slots in programs with few job prospects, and expand slots in programs where employers have to go overseas simply to fill their positions, such as engineering, and students need to be more considerate of whether the education makes financial sense in the long run.

Treating this like a money supply issue is only going to put more young adults back at home with mom and dad because that first job out of college barely covers the student loan payments, let alone room and board.

I think much of this is good. Many students go to school because they feel they have to. They have no interest in the subject matter or doing well. Many go because they want to keep insurance or family obligations, or they are not responsible enough to leave the school system (they want to continue high school essentially). If it were me, I would have students take vocation tests. If they were academically inclined, the state would help the student in college. If they were vocational, the state would help move them in that direction. Both sides would agree that if the student chose to do something different, it would be on their own money completely. There would be less choice in the matter of course if you get help from the government, but this would ensure we have college for what is needed. The students would have responsability, and the state could make sure that job gaps are being filled.