President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech raised the hot topics in the media: the gun-control debate, climate change, the housing market and the economy. However, what was only briefly mentioned is the crime of the ridiculous costs of college.
Students are sent mixed messages. In order to be successful, you must obtain a college education. But, after graduating from college, you are in debt over your head with college loans and you cannot find an adequate job based on your degree to pay off the loans before you reach the age of 40. This is simply unacceptable.
The answer is not more opportunities for loans, which is just more opportunity to be married to debt. College costs have to come down and the only way this is going to happen is by decreasing loans so that colleges decrease tuition so students can afford college without the debt. We need more than the "college scorecard" and the Higher Opportunity Education Act, which are just more debt programs. We need the government to make it harder to incur college debt, and thus force colleges to charge less so that students can afford college.
The one minute in the State of the Union devoted to this topic is not enough to institute change. With that being said, President Obama, I hope to see your plan clearly outlined with proactive steps to ensure that people who wish to attend the college of their choice can afford it now — and in the debt payback years.
ERIN LUIBRAND
Clifton Park
