As much as I agree with Addison Del Mastro re $10k of loan forgiveness now, Tom Nichols has the right take on the path forward. At this point, no one contemplating taking out a loan to pay for college tuition should have any illusions about the downsides. The $10k forgiveness was grace. Appreciate it as such. From Nichols’, The Trouble With Boutique Colleges (emphasis mine):
Going to a top-tier university, if you can afford it, is a life-changing choice that will likely work out well. Going to an affordable public institution for particular professional skills (such as nursing or teaching) is also a life-changing choice that will likely go well.
Going to an extremely expensive school that is neither selective nor known for a particular course of study and majoring in medieval Corsican poetry is a life-changing choice that is almost certainly not going to work out well…
Tuition-dependent boutique schools are keenly aware that they are competing for students, as I wrote in my book The Death of Expertise:
This entire [shopping] process means not only that children are in charge, but that they are already being taught to value schools for some reason other than the education it might provide them. Schools know this, and they’re ready for it. In the same way the local car dealership knows exactly how to place a new model in the showroom, or a casino knows exactly how to perfume the air that hits patrons just as they walk in the door, colleges have all kinds of perks and programs at the ready as selling points, mostly to edge out their competitors over things that matter only to kids.
… For students who refuse to go to a public school (which, in most states, is still a good deal) but did not gain admission to a top-tier school, the beautiful boutique school is a tempting debt trap. Debt forgiveness is a Band-Aid. In order to fix the broken system of higher education in America, we need to start changing our culture and how we think about what it means to “go to college.”
