As a taxpayer and former university vice president, I'm glad we make college more accessible in this country through loans. Incurring a reasonable amount of debt to get higher education and, potentially, $1 million in additional lifetime career earnings over workers with just a high school diploma seems like a worthy investment to me. I think it is also an awesome opportunity to teach young people about personal financial responsibility.
That investment in addiction education would preserve a "quality of life over a lifetime" valued at $65 billion collectively, according to this study. By way of comparison, outstanding student loans now total $1.5 trillion. Education for student loans and substance abuse, of course, aren't mutually exclusive, but I believe we should spend more money, time and attention on addressing the student loan crisis by educating students before they take on the debt.
Instead, the plan should be to allocate billions of dollars to educate young people about risk and reward, and provide them with education and tools to make informed decisions about their education and future employment.
Apropos...
Asking government to fix a problem it created is akin to asking a fox to rectify the population decline in the chicken coop. What could possibly go wrong?
Student loan policies, framed by republicans, make most young Americans serfs to the banks.