The push for higher education has become almost an obsession within our society. The federal government began guaranteeing student loans provided by banks and non-profit lenders in 1965 with the Federal Family Education Loan program. In 1992, it was decided that direct lending would be less costly and simpler than guaranteed loans. For the next decade, congress and universities debated which method was more beneficial to students, taxpayers and the overall state of the economy. While opinions varied, the push to get more college graduates was on; from 1994 to 1998, student loans tripled in the United States as a result of direct loans. While student loans and how to fund them was debated, the push for a substantial increase in students was unified.
The unified and concerted effort to push higher education has come at a cost. Since the government decided to start tracking statistics on student loans, the numbers of loans and debt has increased every year. The numbers are shocking. In 2013, 70 percent of college students left school with an average debt of more than $28,000. The amount of student loans has swelled to $1.2 trillion and about 50 percent never get paid back. The increase just from 2010 to 2013 was 20 percent. Meanwhile, society continues to downgrade apprenticeships. This trend has been building for decades and reaching a crescendo.