The easy access to student loans is driving up the cost of education to a ridiculous extreme. If people only went to college if they could pay (by working their way through, parent support, etc) the demand side would go down considerably.

The loans allow the colleges to charge more, which in turn requires more loans to be able to continue. Classic death spiral. Unfortunately it does not become clear to the student until he/she graduates with a degree that doesn't increase their value to the market.

Let the free market work. It will always weed out the garden naturally...

I am not sure that this article made sense. I followed some of the links, and looked at the graphs. Why would there be so many "sugar babies" who have nursing degrees when nurses are being snapped up by healthcare industry as soon as they stick their little pink noses out over their nursing credential?

I would like to submit a suggestion that Wm has made me aware of: If you eliminate non-major requirements (eg English Literature, World Gov, etc) and hire extra teachers for the classes that are actually in demand, you enable students to get their 4 year degree in 3 years instead of in 5 or 6.

The problem with this is philosophical on the part of the school: they cannot then rationalize the continued hire of professors who are teaching unwanted courses. So the colleges proclaim that a "Bachelor of Arts" degree indicates an individual with a breadth of education suitable for an upper class Victorian Englishman and require students to take non-essential classes. (OK...the university may not phrase their requirements in just that fashion.)

My point is that even this small a change would decrease the student debt and introduce the idea of competing for the students, many of whom are actually interested in jobs and not Middle English Poetry.

Jan, learned ME on her own

College is unaffordable. College degrees don't guarantee that the person holding it got an education. Larger corporations won't accept applicants for employment without a meaningless degree. Alice's Wonderland made much more sense than today's education system. I often feel like the guy at the end of the film, "Bridge on the River Kwai." He looked at the dead bodies, and at the destroyed bridge and all he could say was, "Madness, madness."

Prostitution is nothing new

I call the public colleges GOVERNMENT INDOCTRINATION CENTERS.

This is why the Democrats are pushing the idea that university be made "free". They don't want us to be able to make it go away by not sending our kids.

It's only one piece of success, I have a degree, getting an MBA next year, founded and ran two corporations that were profitable and one had 200 people, military service vet, and I'm in technical fields.

My advice would be zero interest in 'arts' degrees, stick to hard sciences. The liberal arts stuff really is of zero value in the market. Work and get experience, if you can't find one, make your own. 2 years of couch surfing with mom and dad looks bad.

I hate to couch it in these terms, but it's better than forgiving the loans an sticking the taxpayers (once again) with the check. This way at least somebody gets something they want.

Sheesh.

My advice is NOT to go to college at all. Just go out there and learn what YOU need to learn at the time YOU need to learn it. That way its up to YOU to pick careers that will make you money and make you happy. The degree just doesnt do that now, and maybe it never really did. I learn more now from the internet and youtube than I ever would in a college course.

I recommend a very good book on this subject : "Worthless", by Aaron Clarey. Available for a few buck on Amazon, paper or Kindle versions.