“Going to college” is a meaningless phrase. Is acquiring a marketable skill, through either college or trade school worth it? Yes, assuming you manage the cost of the education so that it is proportional to your expected earnings. Attending a high cost private school and majoring in Elizabethan Poetry or Gender Studies is like flushing money down the drain. Attending a reasonably priced state school and majoring in Accounting, Electrical Engineering or Nursing can be a very good investment in your future. So is learning a trade, like plumbing/pipefitting.
We need to quit focusing on sending everyone to college, and make our priority making sure we are training a workforce for our current job market. Also, get rid of the idea of student loans. Make colleges price their product according to what people can pay with a part-time job or reasonable savings. $50K/year to attend college is ridiculous and is made possible by the ease of obtaining student loans. There is no cost accountability for colleges which is why we are seeing costs continue to sky rocket.
But all they have to do is work for a non-religious nonprofit or the gov. for 10 years (with 120 continuous payments) and complete “forgiveness” of their student loans of any amount is offered. and which provision may be seen as populating government with liberals