A recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report indicates the total amount of U.S. student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion.

For the first time in U.S. history, student loan debt exceeds debt from credit cards and auto loans.

With the decline of unskilled labor jobs, however, more Americans are attending college than ever before. And that isn’t a bad thing; college graduates earn much more on average than those who lack degrees, and a skilled work force can produce goods and services of greater value.

Unfortunately, many students are leaving school without the requisite skills for an increasingly demanding job market — but with unmanageable debt that threatens the economic recovery, according to National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys President William Brewer.

“As bankruptcy lawyers, we’re the first to see the cracks in the foundation,” Brewer said to The Associated Press this week. “We were warning of mortgage problems in 2006 and 2007. Now we’re seeing the same signs of distress. We’re seeing huge defaults on student loans and people driven into financial difficulties because of them.”

While students who attend for-profit colleges make up just 26 percent of all borrowers, they account for 43 percent of defaults since 2008, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. The loan-default rate at for-profit colleges is 11.6 percent, compared to just 6 percent for public colleges and 4 percent for traditional private colleges.

In a global economy, higher education isn’t just a necessity for those pursuing careers; it’s a crucial component of a competitive economy. Congress and the White House should treat it as such, not as a cash cow for their lobbyist friends.

— The Oneonta Daily Star,

New York, April 7