This much we know: College pays. You can lose your house to foreclosure,
but never your education. Four-year college graduates’ pay advantage
over high school grads has doubled over the past 30 years. If money for
tuition is tight, the advice goes, borrow what you need. Students have
been listening. In 2010 student debt exceeded credit-card debt for the
first time. In 2011 it surpassed auto loans. In March, the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau announced that student debt had passed
$1 trillion. It grew by $300 billion from the third quarter of 2008 even
as other forms of debt shrank by $1.6 trillion, according to a separate
tabulation by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In a press briefing
at the White House in April, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said,
“Obviously if you have no debt that’s maybe the best situation, but this
is not bad debt to have. In fact, it’s very good debt to have
