A Serious Reminder of Why Tuition isn't always "Good" Debt

I just want to direct you to an article I saw on Yahoo News today about a woman who is so strapped with tuition-based debt that she is unable to buy a home, a car and has to put off getting married and having children because her credit is so damaged by this burden. Here is the story: http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/108846/the-555000-student-loan-burden?mod=edu-continuing_education

This is something that I have never understood about our world. Please, someone, tell me why
a college degree is so expensive, yet a requirement to even be considered for any job that pays a liveable wage? Two year college costs (right now, in the year 2010) start at about $6000 to $7000 per year for a full time student. Not everyone can get a loan for school and not everyone qualifies for grants. For those who get one or more loans, most won't be able to get a salary high enough in their first job to live and make agreed upon payments back to the loan, especially right now, when worker competition has driven salaries to lower than what they were ten years ago and everything is much more expensive than it was ten years agoi.

To make matters worse, banks are still allowed to increase rates to more the 15% for anyone who is struggling. Some banks have been reported as charging up to 79% on some credit cards. Talk about financial massacre. Anything above 15% should be illegal in my opinion and in the opinions of many others, but those who get to keep our money, still have the power.

I have a feeling that more stories like this, about tuition, are going to come to the surface.

This is why I'm doing this self learning path. Because I'm tired of living by rules that are absolutely insanely ludicrous. I'm teach MYSELF dammit! And I may take a few Kitchen Kapers classes because they are not $7000 dollars. I can choose what I learn and I don't have to fill out 10 forms and sign my life away for $20,000 of debt for one semester. And anything else I need to learn, I can do with my own will, determination and the hard working spirit with which my family bestowed upon me. Being outside of an institution does not make my brain, physiologically, any less capable of absorbing new information and learning all the techniques necessary to become skilled in something new. I'm all for being tested and put through proving. I'm not all for going into $300,000+ dollars worth of debt to prove it. Much of the information is available for free or for a $40 textbook. And now we have online sources, videos, and web based learning modules that can be had for much less and official accredited tuition. Mentors, in all walks of life are eager to give advice and share what they know. Skill practice can be had by simple self-discipline. You gotta keep trying and trying and trying until you get it. That's how we're built to learn. We all know that graduates still have to prove themselves on the job and go through the same trial and error. Don't get me wrong, I'm still all for a well rounded education with teachers and classroom enviroments, I'm just not for the exhorbitant cost. A willing person, who is passionate about learning something, will find a way to know and practice and be tested/judged/graded by those who witness their intensity and drive and accomplishment. And that is what I'm setting out to prove.

Okay, I'm off my soapbox for now. We'll be back to learning and having more fun tomorrow (life beckons me to get other things done so no time for culinary blogging tonight). But I just had to share this with you. I hope you will be inspired to find a way to fight back against the ridiculous rules that no longer apply to our times.