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College education

Costs, debts are increasing, but a 4-year degree helps for a lifetime

Surveys of annual incomes show repeatedly that to make a decent living in this country, you have to have more than a high school education. Quality community college courses help a great deal, especially in a specialty with expanding employment opportunities. But it is four years of college, or more, that produce real pay-stub results – eventually, if not immediately.

But, how to cover the cost of tuition, fees and books at even lower cost public colleges?

A student working part-time, with a couple of small scholarships and from a moderately well-off family, may be able to cover the cost of a post-high school education. May be able to. But if a family cannot contribute for one reason or another, and many cannot, then a student has to go into debt.

Student loans have been easy to come by for the reason above: It is almost certain that an education will mean a more satisfying life in many ways, and it will indirectly add to the nation’s economy.

Federal loan programs have mushroomed in the last decade in order for students coming out of high school to take advantage of what courses at a community college or a degree at a four-year college will return. As a result, student debt nationwide is in the many billions of dollars, comparable to the debt tied to automobile purchases and to credit-card usage.

Critics of the costs associated with college attendance, costs which have consistently exceeded annual increases in inflation, are quick to point to the amount of tuition borrowing that is available. That money, they say, discourages colleges from attempting to hold cost increases to more modest levels. And as costs go up, more student borrowing is required.

In order to make college possible for more students, next year, one government program is expected to make it easier for families to borrow college money. And these families may be families that already have a certain amount of debt and may have less than an adequate credit history.

To make more numerous and larger student loans possible in the Parent Plus lending program, the approval process will consider a family’s last two years of credit history rather than the usual five.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the coming change last week, and speculated that the result will be more families burdened with debt that they will have little ability to repay. Parents lend their names to the loans, and are responsible for them, in expectation that their children will be able to help repay them. That should occur, but may not. Neither parents nor graduates may have the necessary income.

The Journal reported that the White House estimates that about 10 percent more families, from 3 million now to 3.370 million, will become a part of the Parent Plus loan program with the relaxed credit review. The average borrower now owes about $21,000, with a total Parent Plus program size of $62 billion.

Is the administration’s likely credit-review change the right thing to do?

We believe it is best to err on the side of making it possible for more students to attend college than fewer, to earn the benefits that come from community college classes or from a four-year or more degree. Not all will want to work in the specialties or the majors that have the best job prospects at graduation or beyond, and some will not have the abilities or the good luck to land lucrative positions, but they should have the opportunity. Post high school education makes those opportunities possible.

College costs have increased at lower rates in the past couple of years, which is encouraging. That is to some degree the result of competition for students, while in the public colleges, there is a sensitivity to the criticism of past high increases.

Students and parents should always plan carefully to manage their student debt. But students should reach; a college education is too important.



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