The secretary of education is concerned that the U.S. has fallen from first to sixteenth in world college graduation rates. And, a great start in life is, indeed, a good thing. No argument.
But how great is it to arrive at adulthood with a degree, heavy debts, and no job? The high price of higher education and the availability of government loan programs have tempted many young people to take on far too much debt, which was predictable and forgivable. The institutions raised their prices which was also predictable and less forgivable. What followed was something troublingly similar to the housing bubble. Easy credit led to excessive borrowing. People took on more education than they could afford and learned that the college degree they’d been sold as empowering was, in fact, enslaving.
