Paying For College Degrees

I'm of the opinion that if government were to get out of the student loan business, and banks--whose business it is to determine the viability of getting loans paid back--were to be restored to their rightful role of lending money, you'd get a lot less Medieval Uzbeki Film Studies majors and a few more math, science, and engineering majors.  And there'd be a lot less ridiculous talk about forgiving student loan debt, too:

Americans have long suspected that, for many, a college degree simply isn’t worth the price. 

American taxpayers – two-thirds of whom do not have a college degree – are likewise increasingly skeptical of the notion that they should pay off loans that someone else made the decision to take out...

According to The Wall Street Journal, 15 percent of programs graduate students who carry more federal student loan debt than their annual income. 

Interestingly, graduate programs – which are generally perceived to be good investments – are some of the worst offenders. 

Students who graduate from the University of Miami Law School, for example, hold a median total debt of $150,896, but earn a starting salary of just $52,100. Even more problematic, students who obtain a master’s degree from New York University in film/video and photographic arts graduate with a median total debt of a whopping $168,568, but earn a median starting salary of $29,600. 

Those findings are particularly concerning, considering that there is virtually no cap on how much students can borrow for graduate school under the PLUS loan program. 

There is simply no reason that American taxpayers should be footing the entire cost of the bill upfront for degrees with such a low return on investment. 

There are more specifics in the article.

Parents, teach your children well.  Teach them how to make good financial decisions.