What to do about all that debt

Here’s a four-letter word that should make everybody cringe:

Debt.

What’s particularly painful is when our young people pile up mountains of debt while working on a college education. They’e trying to get ahead in life, but in many cases they just fall further behind. It can take years for them to dig out from under that rocky burden of student loan debt, putting their relative independence on long-term hold.

While today’s Press looks at the college debt phenomenon in some detail, it’s nowhere near complete or conclusive. Yes, college costs have skyrocketed in recent years, putting pay-as-you-go way beyond reach for most American families. Yes, too many of our students are financially illiterate and don’t understand what they’re getting into with long-term student loans. And yes, lack of personal responsibility plays a significant role in student loan defaults. When 43 million Americans owe more than $1.3 trillion — and many aren’t paying it back — that’s a crisis.

So what do we do about it?

Outside of political magic wands that might include some form of debt forgiveness, or restructuring higher ed so jobs are cut and everyone else takes massive pay cuts that lead to inferior educational experiences, here are just a few thoughts on ways to move forward.

• Remember that four-year college is not for everyone. Many students will be happier and better rewarded financially by pursuing training in technical fields. Kootenai County, with high school and college technical programs proliferating on the prairie, is better poised to provide those opportunities than most places in the country.

• Academic excellence is rewarded through some terrific scholarships. The harder students work, the more college debt they may be able to avoid.

• Dual-enrollment is the smart way to go. Yes, it’s harder to complete college-level coursework while students are still in high school, but these increasingly popular programs save time and money. A high school graduate who already has completed a year or two year of college coursework is way ahead of the game.

• Community college is a great first step. Not only is tuition cheaper than many four-year institutions, but the ability to live at home can save big bucks.

• Better planning is essential. Too many students head off to college without educational goals aimed ultimately at careers. Untold piles of debt result from students spending five or six years in college and, in many cases, graduating with a degree that doesn’t catapult them toward good-paying jobs or careers.

• As a society, we need to work much harder at preparing students for college. The National Center on Education Statistics shows that only 28 percent of college-bound students ever graduate. The result is students accumulating debt without ever getting to the finish line, a double whammy.

One of the reasons college students don’t finish is because they were academically ill-prepared when they started. Nationwide, 61 percent of college students need remedial coursework. Why would you do that coursework at hundreds of dollars per credit hour when you could do it free in our public high schools? Yet our public schools as a whole aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. That disconnect, we believe, is one of the biggest causes not just of pathetic college graduation rates, but also of overwhelming student debt.

Solve that and much of the burden to students and society is lifted.