<story><title>U.S. To Forgive at Least $108B in Student Debt in Coming Years</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-forgive-at-least-108-billion-in-student-debt-in-coming-years-1480501802</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Chuckalucky89</author><text>Having a reasonable discussion about student loans with an age group that attended college 20-30 years ago isn&amp;#x27;t reasonable. The costs increased exponentially compared to what it was. The reasonable solution is to educate high school students on the affordable options of in-state universities and community college.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>phkahler</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; The costs increased exponentially compared to what it was.&lt;p&gt;The cost increased due to government intervention. They wanted more people to go to college so they told lenders they&amp;#x27;d guarantee loans for education. They do that by having the ability to take it out of your paycheck for the rest of your life if you don&amp;#x27;t pay. Anyway, with the flood of money instantly available, schools were able to jack tuition by double digits every year for as long as the want. The place I went has been on a building spree for the last 20 years - it&amp;#x27;s a whole different place now. Part of that was needed since the number of students has about doubled, so it&amp;#x27;s not entirely wasteful. But the bottom line is that the &amp;quot;free&amp;quot; money is what caused the rates to rise. I feel bad for that entire generation - they got fucked from all angles financially.</text></comment>
<story><title>U.S. To Forgive at Least $108B in Student Debt in Coming Years</title><url>http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-forgive-at-least-108-billion-in-student-debt-in-coming-years-1480501802</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Chuckalucky89</author><text>Having a reasonable discussion about student loans with an age group that attended college 20-30 years ago isn&amp;#x27;t reasonable. The costs increased exponentially compared to what it was. The reasonable solution is to educate high school students on the affordable options of in-state universities and community college.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pc86</author><text>Who isn&amp;#x27;t being educated about these options? I was in HS 00-04 and teachers and guidance counselors constantly extolled cheap state school options (which even today are in the $6-8k&amp;#x2F;yr range including room and board) and community colleges.&lt;p&gt;Prestige and pride have a lot to do with it. Two degrees from the same school are worth the same if one person was there for four years and one went to community college for two first, but ask the 17 year old HS student who just has to sign a promissory note which one they want to do, and they&amp;#x27;re going to pick the first option 9 times out of 10.</text></comment>