Although discussions regarding how student loans and college debts are received and paid off are continually had on many levels across the country, any attempts at making changes to these practices are not being reflected into the lives of post-graduation students when collections and the subsequent struggles that accompany them arise.
The price of higher education has significantly risen in recent decades, but has the quality of education risen in parallel? The quality of learning which students receive at many institutions has not made as significant a change as the cost to attend it has. Where is the money going? To make these universities more aesthetically pleasing, sports teams and new buildings or to professors? Or for improving classrooms and technology used inside them?
Colleges have the continual opportunity to charge whatever price they please for their degree knowing that whatever it may be students will still come and they will still pay to have a chance to try to earn a degree from that institution.
If these prices are going to keep rising, then there need to be options which make it affordable to any and all people capable to try. The push and pull of the amount of money awarded to students versus the amount of money that colleges charge has to stop. While there are many options out there for students from many different backgrounds attending many different kinds of schools, the fact remains that as the federal and private granters attempt to dole out more money, campuses around the nation continue to raise tuition prices in order to capture more of this as well.
When it continues to look like these practices won’t change or will only be made worse in the future, efforts should at least be made to educate students and borrowers on exactly what they will be getting themselves into beforehand. The causes of problems and the consequences that come from not understanding them should be carefully outlined. There are too many people out there who do not understand what they do and do not qualify for.
“The price of higher education has significantly risen in recent decades…”
Even though I do see that the goal in making higher education affordable to all, it needs to change with the times. Many students get caught in a continual cycle of borrowing beyond their means to attain a college degree which they hope will lead to a job it; oftentimes, it does not and, in the end, they are left unable to pay off their college debts.
There are more than $1 trillion in student loans outstanding across the country and no way to remedy this problem in sight. The average debt per borrower is $23,300 and only increasing every year. The economic climate makes it even harder for those with jobs to get a salary to live off of well and pay the loans back. The federal government and colleges must work together to solve the student loan crisis rather than push against each other and make the problem worse.