(from Forbes):

By Chuck DeVore

There’s been a lot of ink spilled and words loosed over the growing mountain of student debt, now more than $1.3 trillion, about two-thirds as much as the combined total of credit card balances and auto loan debt held by Americans.

Politicians have varying explanations and proposed solutions for the “student debt crisis.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders says that college should be free and that student loans have “outrageously high interest rates.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lays some of the blame on for-profit colleges, saying the schools, “…take all this money and put all these young people and their families into debt…”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich pointed to lowering the cost of higher education, citing online courses and how, in Ohio, “Universities won’t get paid a dime unless a student graduates or completes a course.”

While Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio said America needs more vocational schools where students can get trained to do skilled jobs while in high school, “…so they can graduate and go to work.”

Before 2008, student loan debt wasn’t considered a crisis worthy of national attention. What happened? CONTINUE READING HERE