For many students at North Harford, college is already a focus. Some seniors may already know their college plans, some may be waiting for acceptances, some may not be planning on going at all.  Regardless of their plans, all these students have one common concern with regard to higher education:  the price tag.

According to the Wall Street Journal, college tuition has risen three times as fast as the consumer-price index and twice as fast as medical care over the last decade.  The majority of Americans now think that having a college degree is the only way to attain a good salary. Four-year college graduates continue to experience far less unemployment and earn higher salaries than those with only a high school education. In 2012, the unemployment rate for college graduates was less than half the rate for high school graduates, according to NBC News. But Princeton graduate Stephanie Gates went as far as to say that the bachelor’s degree doesn’t matter anymore, that the bachelor’s is merely for the pursuit of knowledge, not the pursuit of a career. So why then should it cost $200,000 for a young adult to pursue intellect at a relatively prestigious institution?

If the cost of college in the US continues to grow at its current rate, the price of tuition, housing, and fees at a four-year private university in about 16 years will run to about $88,000 per year according to the New Internationalist magazine.The annual cost at a public university would remain lower: a projected $46,000. However, the cost of tuition is increasing even faster at state schools than private ones.

Currently there is over one trillion dollars worth of college debt in the United States. That’s only 1/18 of the United States’ national debt, and the government is scrambling to find new ways to slash this financial crisis.

There are multiple reasons for the increasing costs of US education: expanding campuses, construction of new labs and facilities, and the bloated number of administrators now presiding over the system.

“What is driving costs is the metastasizing army of administrators with bloated salaries, and our university presidents who are now paid as though they were CEOs running a business—and not a very successful one at that,” stated Dr. Rudy Fichtenbaum, president of the American Association of University Professors.

Universities bring in an excessive amount of revenue, mainly from tuition costs and sporting events. There is no doubt that it is, in fact, a business effort to keep a college financially stable. But that is no reason for this sort of capitalist competition; education should not be so unattainable. Believe it or not, it is feasible to maintain a reasonable tuition. Bob Jones University in South Carolina is a private Christian school that has managed to keep a relatively low annual tuition and board price of $20,310 by not awarding generous scholarships as other institutions have done.

Undoubtedly, many students feel the pressure to attend a distinguished university; some people turn their noses at community colleges or even state schools. But director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in D.C. Richard Vedder pointed out that it is difficult to measure the intellectual success within these schools.

“…We don’t even know whether graduating students at, say, Harvard, Kansas State or Cuyahoga Community College know more or think more critically than when they entered,” said Vedder.

For some high school students, choosing a college is the first major decision they have had to make in their lives, and already financial pressure is weighing in. Despite acceptances to impressive private schools, some students have to settle for a more affordable college that may have not been their number one choice.

As Katharine Lyall, president of the University of Wisconsin System from 1992 to 2004, said “We need to start from a recognition that we have crossed a key line from “higher education as subsidized public good” to “higher education as a competitive market good.””

Fact: college is expensive. If a student chooses to attend a community college, congratulations. College debt is overwhelming. But for those that want to get out of the house and explore the college experience independently, it’s understandable. Everyone has heard that college is an experience unlike any other, it’s almost cliche at this point. But can students really be blamed for wanting to look forward to something?

However at this point, it would seem that student debt is the only thing to anticipate. This dramatic inflation of college tuition has the potential to cripple future generations. Paying off student loan debt can be a long, complicated, and often arduous business, one that can put significant pressure on an individual’s finances, influence major life decisions, and put healthy credit at risk: it’s estimated that about seven million of the nation’s borrowers are in default.

So instead of dreaming up new loan programs and scholarships, what America needs is to rethink the structure and purpose of higher education. Think about it, in countries like Germany, a college education is free. No college debt. At all. On top of that, international students can study for free as well, for as many years as they would like. As part of this rethinking, the US needs to come up with fresh approaches to reducing tuition and making college more affordable, which is the real solution to cutting and ideally eliminating overwhelming student debt.

As things stand, only 27 cents of every higher-education dollar is spent on instruction, according to the Huffington post. This is further evidence that our system of higher education needs transformation. Colleges and universities need to match students’ interests, skill sets, and passions with programs that position them for happy and productive careers, WITHOUT mountains of debt.