The Wall Street Journal reported today that the total student loan debt in America ($829.785 billion) passed the total of revolving (i.e. credit card) debt ($826.5 billion). Of this amount, the report estimates that $300,000,000,000 has been incurred in the last four year, I assume as a response to the poor economy leading to more people staying in school because they can't find a job and people going back to school for the same reason.
Set aside for a moment the fact that we owe as Americans over $800,000,000,000 in unsecured revolving debt and what that says about our culture, a culture that much of the church has embraced with a smile. Think instead about the enormous debt that we have incurred as a people for college educations. This readily available debt has put a lot of people under a debt load that will take a very long time to pay off and at the same time inflating the cost of college. Because debt is so readily available to pay for college, it has less of an impact to raise tuition costs year after year, which college after college has done.
As Christians, what does this say to us about college? Is it necessary for our kids? Is it something we should go into debt to obtain? Even if we have the means, is spending perhaps $100,000 on a college education for our kids a sign of responsible stewardship?
I am increasingly having a hard time justifying the expense of college as a means to ensure that our kids "have a good life" and are able to live the American dream, a dream which increasingly requires us to go deep into debt before we even enter the workforce. If $830 billion in debt is the entry fee for living the middle-class lifestyle, perhaps we need to reevaluate whether that should be our goal at all?
2 comments:
I think that's an excellent question. I think people go to college just to go to college, and then graduate and do what they could've done without it. I think college is good in some respects, but I wouldn't advise a young person to go unless they had a specific goal. it is impossible to work in a professional field without schooling. That being said I think we need to think about college with a fresh perspective, and maybe trade schools should have much more of a place (or even apprenticeships with believers?).
Mark
I am especially concerned about "Christian colleges/universities" - and even "Christian schools" - which tend to be even more expensive than public institutions, and yet are for the most part modeled on the public system (with varying amounts of "Christian teaching" tacked on).
Believing parents are urged to send their children to such institutions, and are often called down for not being willing to "sacrifice" for the Lord (hmmm... is that who/what is really being sacrificed for?).
Yes, the middle class dream (if it really even exists any more) and the "go to college because it's the thing to do," are commonly used arguments to encourage college attendance.
But I often suspect that the real reasons for pushing students into "higher" and/or "better quality" educational systems, lay in philosophical and pragmatic concerns by those in positions of power who wish to maintain their social and economic status quo.
Just as a by-the-by, it is often less "impossible to work in a professional field without schooling" than one might think. "Fields" are very wide, and one can often be very involved in them, in creative, hands-on, satisfying ways, without necessarily becoming a "traditional professional."
(Of course we don't want to have too many creative thinkers on our hands... being one of those "philosophical" reasons I was referring to...)
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