have become so expensive that students “must effectively mortgage their lives””
I don’t disagree with this at all...but I am still perplexed why these programs (and colleges, generally, including expensive private undergrad colleges) are bursting at the seams. of course easy credit / cash makes it appear “free”...but surely...at some point, the reality of debt has to sink in?
Since the 1970’s, inflation in college tuition has been growing at about a 7-8% annual rate vs. 2-3% for the average consumer inflation rate. Some of this is cost-driven, I suspect, with the explosion of administrative costs and overhead at colleges and universities, but all of this hyper-inflation is supported in large measure by easy lending, Pell-Grants, etc., that has just pumped more and more money into college programs. Young people were encouraged “you’ll make so much more with a college degree, you can afford to take on the debt” — well guess what: it just doesn’t work that way any more.
Colleges should be ashamed of the debt burden they’ve imposed on their graduates. And those wonderful bureaucrats in Washington should likewise be ashamed of their funneling grants and other programs that have helped pump-up the bubble of college tuition.
Ah, yes, the law of unintended consequences.