I just read an article about cost-shifting in public higher education which strikes me as yet another villain in this melodrama. Appearing in Demos, the article talks about state governments disinvesting in higher education, spending less per-student than formerly.
State colleges and universities have responded by dramatically raising tuition and fees, at a rate that's a multiple of the inflation rate. This has resulted in typical college graduates leaving school with something like $29,000 in debt, the repayment of which is an unholy drag on their post-graduation financial status.
The other DrC and I graduated from the CA state universities at a time when the state still paid most of the costs, making the impact on our parents manageable. Neither of us carried debt when we finished our baccalaureate or masters degrees. Apparently that would be seriously uncommon today.
