Higher education is a good investment, even if a student has to take out college loans

EDITOR:
Unfortunately, there were some comments made in the higher education article on page one Sunday, Feb. 20, "Tuition costs remain in an upward spiral at public universities," that were as startling as the projections were to which they referred.
Commenting on the truly remarkable tuition increases that have plagued Ohio's public universities, the article quoted Jacqueline T. Williams, the executive director of the Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, as saying "most families will never be able to send their kids to college if those trends continue." The article also indicated that Gary Carpenter, executive director of the National Institute of Certified College Planners, shared Ms. Williams' concerns.
Then, as if this depressing news were not enough, the article chimed in with a section entitled "A Frightening Scenario." There, we read that if tuition continues to increase at the projected rate of 10 percent annually, parents will need to invest $350 a month to cover tuition costs at YSU in 18 years. The monthly investment jumps to $450 a month if the student, born in 2005, attends Ohio State University. What frightens me about this line of reasoning is the idealistic expectation that students cannot "afford" to go to college unless they graduate debt free.
I find it quite revealing and somewhat troubling that smart people like Ms. Williams and Mr. Carpenter still believe, and promote the idea, that students earning a college degree should be able to do so without having incurred some debt by the time they graduate. Sadly, the historic ideal of graduating college debt free is quickly being replaced with the reality, and necessity, of student loans. I was also disturbed by the "Tips for dealing with high college costs" that made no mention of student loans as an option.
Although the thought of graduating with debt is unpopular, here is a fact that never seems to make it into the dialog of escalating college costs: for every $20,000 owed to a lender or lenders (principle and interest), a graduate will need to earn less than $0.96 per hour to meet that obligation in the full-time job they accept when they enter the workforce after graduation. This is made possible by using either Stafford loans alone, or a combination of Stafford loans and loans from private lenders, both of which provide at least 10n years payback time. When any debt incurred from school expenses is compared to the earning power of the college graduate, in any discipline, the value becomes obvious-the monthly loan payment, which typically does not begin until six months after graduation, will certainly be less than the increase in monthly income. Moreover, as the years after graduation continue, the college graduate's income will increase exponentially, allowing the former student to by down some of the debt and shorten the payback term.
I am not a banker, but I am a teacher and a scholar whose only choice to earn a terminal degree was to amass some debt. In doing so I've learned that at any degree level, the financial benefits after graduation will exceed the debt obligation for graduates, as long as they apply themselves in their field of study.
RICHARD HASSLER, Ed.D.
Girard