Do something about student loan debt Boomer Bucks by Barbara Mlotek Whelehan • Bankrate.com

My local paper ran a story over the weekend about some young, college graduates who went through the trouble of getting top grades in their areas of study, racked up thousands of dollars in student loan debt, earned bachelor's degrees and then were unable to find jobs in their chosen fields.

For example, 25-year-old Heather Deitchman of Royal Palm Beach, Fla., received a degree in marketing from a private university and wound up with a job at a retail store in a mall, making $14,000 a year. She probably gets a discount on store merchandise, but who cares?

Apparently this is not uncommon. In fact, the article goes on to say that there's "an entire crop of 'Quarterlife-Crisis' books" lining bookstore shelves attesting to career hardships faced by 20-somethings.

Weighty student loan debt
Their biggest hardship is likely to be the weight of student loan debts hanging over their heads.

In 1993, fewer than half the college graduates had any student-loan debt. For those who did, the average debt was $9,250. In 2004 two-thirds of college students graduated with student-loan debt. Its average: $19,200.

Even after adjusting for inflation, that represents an increase of 58 percent in debt, according to Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to shed light on the adverse effects of debt on educational opportunity, family financial security and economic competitiveness.

The higher debt levels are directly correlated with the escalating costs of a college education. In the last five years alone, tuition and fees have increased an inflation-adjusted 40 percent, according to the College Board.

Over 15 years, the annual cost of education at a public four-year college rose from about $2,000 to nearly $5,500; at private schools, it more than doubled from about $10,000 to more than $21,000 per year on average. Earlier this year, the Christian Science Monitor ran an illustration showing soaring college costs compared to the inflation rate, and it's not a pretty picture.

In other words, all indications are that the debt trap will continue to ensnare more students and at much higher levels. The trend line will continue moving upward, along with college costs.

Rising loan costs compound the problem. New Stafford loans issued since June 30 feature a fixed rate of 6.8 percent, which will result in payments that are 20 percent higher than loans issued at the previous year's rate -- not to mention double the total interest obligation, points out Project on Student Debt.

What can you do?
You can turn a blind eye to the problem. Or you can take five minutes of your time to e-mail the powers that be in the educational system. The U.S. Education Department is currently accepting comments from the public on ways that it can improve its rules and regulations on student loans. Let's give the department an earful. If lots of people do this before the Nov. 9 deadline, it may result in some positive changes.