The current $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt in this country threatens to cripple our economy.
Instead of educating new students on financial responsibility, the financial institutions sent their own cheerleaders to campuses across the country handing out free T-shirts in exchange for signing up for new credit cards. How could one refuse when they had your college logo on them?
The federal government has made it easier than ever to borrow money, and we're all paying for it now with crushing debt and a bubble that could bring down the economy.
College tuition costs have been skyrocketing for decades as college administrators make no apologies for running them as businesses exclusively focused on the bottom line rather than as a civic responsibility for the public good. They prey on parents' fears of being a "bad" parent if they do not provide a college education for their children.
Meanwhile, the value of that degree has eroded as many graduates are employed in lower-skill jobs in a futile, naive attempt to pay back crushing student loans they may never be able to pay off.
In 2007, a Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was created to help graduates but eligibility is confusing and overwhelming; the program is vastly in need of simplification and an expansion.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently filed a lawsuit against Trump University alleging it's a "scam," but the truth is "financial aid" is the greatest scam in higher education.
Todd Emerson Bowers
Albany