I don't understand all the hate on this article. "You should have known what you were signing up for" "College degrees are worthless" "You're making six figures, you can afford it", a lot of rage, also some contradictory posts, but all of them lacking the basic tenet: Education is good.
The more people who go to university, the more qualified the nation as a whole. This increases their wealth and power internationally, as well as improving quality of life on a basic scale. The more wealthy and powerful they are, the more revenue they bring the government, and it goes on from there. Government investing in people and training is a good thing, surely?
The reason it's so expensive is self-fulfilling - people are prepared to have a lower quality of life (remortgage their home, work while they study) to fund it, so the universities jack up their prices to match. Just think, for the $84000 debt in the article, one could have hired a graduate for maybe a couple of years, and got 40 hours 1-1 training! Univesity does not cost tens of thousands of dollars per student per year to run. The money's being siphoned off to the private sector.
By making university less attainable, you end up with a lower quality workforce. This is why immigrants are flocking to the US, because they come from countries where education is more affordable, so they are more qualified. They're taking jobs (dey tk ur jerb!) because the american people is not educated enough as a whole to fill the market. The thing that I really don't understand, is you have a world leader country in terms of money, lifestyle, technology, science and research, why is it that poorer country immigrants are working for you, rather than you being paid large amounts of money to go over to their countries and bring them up to speed?
I think american corporations are rich; they have the money, the resources, they need the skills. The american people are increasingly education-poor, because the system doesn't help them. And increasingly, the corporations will take workers from other countries, who have the qualifications and skills necessary. The government of these countries (India, some European countries etc) are enabling their people, educating them, and it's working - they're getting well paid jobs in America! The American government needs to support their people to at least the same degree, make education available as a first step, rather than a challenge, and get their population being world leaders.