Taking on debt to fund education isn’t inherently bad, but having that debt back a bloated higher education sector is terrible.
The majority cost increase (65%)[1] of higher education in the US over the last couple decades is due to a systematic defunding of government support for schools. It would be nice if we started investing in our country's education again. [1]2015 Study by the New York Federal Reserve - https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/staff...
"a majority (58%) of Republicans say colleges and universities are having a negative effect on the way things are going in the country"
We should be continuing to encourage higher education in addition to trade schools. Bachelor Degree holders, on average, earn a million dollars more during their life time than those who only have a high school diploma. Even if you are accounting for lost earning potential, cost of tuition, supplies etc... your still talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars more earned than if you were to not achieve a degree.
Pew Research Poll http://www.people-press.org/2017/07/10/sharp-partisan-divisi...
Figure 2A Lifetime Net Earnings by Education https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/educatio...
Figure 1 Lifetime Earnings by Education https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2011/c...
But will that still hold as the percentage of people getting degrees rises?
In the limit everyone gets a degree, and the average wage for a degree holder is the average wage.