[withdavidli]

student loan debt. there are many that graduate with $20k-$100k+ of debt. I'm frugal/cheap, got by with 30k salary in big city a year out of school was tough. Many coworkers that were more normal in spending habits were breaking even or using savings to make ends meet.

At 30k salary, I was able to save $400-$500/month in Boston. It would have been near zero if I had student debt (6%+ interest). Frightening thinking back, but I was always one major repair on my car or mid level health issue away from spending an entire years worth of savings.

[zaarn]

The obvious fix is that graduating shouldn't require someone to go into 100k+ debts.

The entire cost for my graduation is probably come in under 1000€ total, 800€ will be tuition and the rest directly university related spending. (There is an additional 2k€ spending on stuff like a new laptop, software, etc. that wasn't necessarily required but made things easier).

[withdavidli]

Fixes are obvious, implementing it is the hard part. The propaganda for everyone to get a college degree is ingrained into the system. This sprouted countless for profit colleges charging obscene rates of $20k-$30k per year.

Another obvious fix would be to spread good jobs around the country so we don’t have such concentrated HCOL cities. That’s as easily done as the suggestion of lowering cost of graduation to your sugessted price point. We have an entire political party against free or near free education, which means more taxes to pay for it. I don’t fully disagree with some of their stances. Many degrees don’t provide financial value, and can be learned online or have meet ups to discuss topics. A college degree for a college degree sake is what’s happening to much of the populous.

[zaarn]

Obviously it wouldn't be easy. The US education and employment system would have to ease of college degrees. Where I live, about 80% of my class had a job by the time they graduated secondary school. 20% went on for a higher education afterwards, of which only about 30% (or 6% of the original class) moved into College/University (the difference is muddy here).

And at every step, people jumped straight into employment from school.

US High School should focus on that. If a student graduates they should already have a job offer signed, that should be their primary target. If they don't they should be moving into higher education. College and other Institutions should have the same goal.