Student debt can be stifling - Sacramento Bee Editorial Board

In 2012, the most recent year figures are available, 1.3 million students graduating from a four-year college had student loan debt — an increase from 900,000 in 2004. The rise is due to a combination of factors: an increase in the cost of living, stagnating individual incomes and cuts to public colleges during the recession coupled with long-term disinvesment in public education. The result is a massive transfer of current and future wealth from the nation's young to people who already are well off. We are mortgaging our kids' future, and it is not a path to economic prosperity. There are an estimated 6.8 million people older than 50 carrying student loan debt, and there are untold numbers of parents who have taken out private loans and home equity lines, dipped into savings and 401(k) accounts, mortgaged their houses and maxed out their credit cards to help their kids pay for college. The amount is untold because that data can't be tracked in any meaningful way. http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/06/14/3978039/our-viewsstudent-debt-can-be-stifling.html