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I am getting tired of this being called a student loan debt bubble, because it is really a college cost bubble. For a generation now, universities have raised costs at a far higher rate than inflation and the average income. This is the natural outcome of that.

University students today at my school are going to literally the same classrooms, sitting in the same chairs that I did years ago. The buildings are built on land that was donated to the university a hundred years ago. There is no justification for these cost increases. The university even avoids outside audits and sunshine laws that other government agencies are required to abide by.

I support no solution that doea not force colleges to cut costs.

For a generation now, universities have raised costs at a far higher rate than inflation and the average income.

In that way it really does look like the housing bubble. Through massive loan programs the buying power of students increased so the university system started charging more.

There are several issues at hand.

First, these loans have reached a point where you know they just can’t be paid within a reasonable amount of time. They should have set a limit of $800 a month for ten years, and that’s all the money you would have gotten. I can’t imagine how some idiot could come up at 22 years old...owe $100k and they’d have to deny themselves ever buying a house.

Second...you’ve got big name professors who demand big salaries, but rarely teach more than one or two classes in a semester, and never in the summer. You can’t sustain madness.

Third....look around at the administrative staff of every college. Everyone has an assistant, and they usually draw a minimum of $60k. Toss in the fact that each has a secretary or assistant....and you probably are thirty percent overmanned at each university. All layers of cost.

Fourth....every year....a new structure is built...all driving up the cost of each university.

Fifth....ever noticed how major universities now have buffet meal operation going on....almost sixteen hours a day?

No legislature will dare step foot on a campus and investigate what is their own operation.

Part of the solution is cutting useless degree programs that are subsidized by programs that generate both money and jobs, where engineering and nursing majors pay extra to support liberal arts and ethnic studies. Another solution is to say “I’m sorry, you’re not 4 year degree material, go to trade school” - so the college has fewer remedial students, repeat coursework and kids who drop out without a degree.