Somewhere along the last six months of high-school....there should be a mandatory four-hour seminar to explain what happens when you take on enormous loans (greater than $50,000). I think at least half the idiots would realize the mess you get into when you take out $80,000 on college costs.
I worked with a gal who at age 40...still had $10,000 left to pay on her college loan. She’d never owned a house....never bought expensive cars....and continually had to deny herself various things in order to make that monthly loan payment.
You bring up an EXCELLENT point and idea on this topic. Heart goes out to her. Thank you.
It won’t make a dent in the mess since students won’t listen. They’re too busy anticipating their ‘glorious future’ and thinking about how hip they’ll be, how much fun the university will provide, along with the boozing and fornication. They won’t listen and they don’t want to be told anything unpleasant or ‘not fun.’
in addition, mandatory reading should be ‘the millionaire next door’
I’ve said for some time that the U.S. government would institute a college loan forgiveness program. The example you cited of the 40 year-old still paying off student loans explains why. The political pressure for this isn’t going to come from the people paying off the loans ... it’s going to come from all the industries who can’t sell big-ticket items like homes and cars to people who are burdened with enormous college debt.
Maybe another session to explain the importance of gaining skills that make you employable, as opposed to these feel good "studies" classes that they want to stick us with the tab for.
One thing I won't miss about the Obama years is feeling stupid for working and paying my bills.