Student debt hobbles our economy

“Americans owe nearly $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 43 million borrowers. In fact, the average Class of 2016 graduate has $37,172 in student loan debt, up six percent from last year.” Google: “A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2016”

Hillary and Bernie are in complete agreement that this is a totally unsatisfactory state of affairs and will work to make higher education affordable and available to all who meet college requirements. That’s affordable, not free. I know it can be done because we’ve done it before.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University in 1958. Initially my parents provided room and board. Then I married and my wife and I took it from there; and then on to a masters degree from Rice University. Neither of our parents were in a position to provide financial assistance.

The only money we had was the money we earned. And I graduated debt-free. But the education I received was priceless! It was the springboard that propelled me into the then-new field of software development – a field that provided me continuous employment for 30 years, until I retired.

In 1988, our son got a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University. We provided room and board—the rest was up to him. And he graduated debt-free.

That’s part of the “good old days” that I’d very much like to see return.

John H Terrell