Because university is a fantastically overpriced and surprisingly unconvoluted system for turning government-guaranteed un-dischargeable debt in to administrators' and football coaches' salaries via misery and virtual indentured servitude.
That is, a system that perpetrates upon people who have not gained the mental tools necessary to understand what they're agreeing to as a result of the US' staggeringly ineffective secondary schools, but who _have_ been convinced that not attending college is a guaranteed marker of social inadequacy by a marketing engine that pushes the message "You're a worthless person if you don't go to college" in to culture at every possible juncture?
Federal Direct Student Loans, available to undergraduate students at a relatively low fixed rate (but still higher than say, a decent mortgage on a house), only allow a student to take out about $6000/year.
But as college tuition skyrockets (mine is $70k/year, and increasing, and I have a brother at an equivalently priced institution too!), that wont cut it. The rest must either come from personal/family finances, be taken out from the federal government in solely the parent’s name (Federal Direct Plus Parent Loan, with a higher interest rate than direct student loans) or, if that’s not an option, a private lender (usually with an even higher rate).
With circumstances like they are and pitiful stopgaps like these, it’s no wonder my parents waited so long to have children so that they could afford to send them to school. Unfortunately, that’s not an option for most families. The student loan crisis in America really is terrifying.
At some point enrollment at public universities should fall off a cliff (the prestigious institutions that serve mostly wealthy families will be fine, I'm sure). One would think...
I went to college on an ROTC scholarship, so that's another option (of course, you're an indentured servant to Uncle Sam for 8 years after graduating - that may or may not be worse than obligating yourself to lenders via student loans, depending on your perspective).
no, there isn't. I personally paid my way with loans and work, but I wouldn't mind paying a portion of a public university education for my children. Remember you generally end up cosigning loans, so if your kid flakes out, you're on the line anyway.
That is, a system that perpetrates upon people who have not gained the mental tools necessary to understand what they're agreeing to as a result of the US' staggeringly ineffective secondary schools, but who _have_ been convinced that not attending college is a guaranteed marker of social inadequacy by a marketing engine that pushes the message "You're a worthless person if you don't go to college" in to culture at every possible juncture?