^ Countdown to underemployment information thread coming right up.
For closure on this. There is actually two factors prevailing in the current student debt issue. 1. Wages have been stagnant across the board for all workers, including college degree holders and 2. Schools are seeing less state and federal direct funding and schools pass this on to students. Now there are other factors in the rise in tuition but this is the biggest chunk.
So while tuition has been steadily growing wages have not kept pace. Is it greedy colleges fleecing students, yes, in some cases like the university of Phoenix. Is it happening at public schools, not in any of the data I’ve seen.
The easiest, lowest hanging fruit for lowering debt burden of current students is, believe it or not, books. Some estimates, for some majors, are you can cut total debt burden by up to 15% with textbook reforms.
What can we do about raising wages for all workers, the simplest thing in the world, raise the minimum wage. The minimum wage should be something in the area of $12 an hour. That can increase wages of the median income earners by more than 10% in the next few years.
What should we do about the current student loan “crisis”, make student loans interest free. It’s just that simple. Most students think in those terms and will have a better understanding off what the amount of money they are actually borrowing is and be able to actually pay it off.