Bailout for student loans? I recently read an article in the Post about this, and had previously seen Ada Fisher’s criticism of the idea.

There clearly has been a great inflation in college tuition and fees, fueled I suspect by third party money as happened in the past with insurance payments. The justification(s) for this outlandish increase presumes that the education (?) that four years of college provide will lead to a better paid position.

From my own experience, I feel that college, at the undergraduate level is primarily an activity of socializing with some learning, possibly significant, possibly not. The subject matter will have much to do with this, but grade inflation, a constant process whereby few fall by the wayside, and most are now A’s and B’s with some C’s leads to suspicion that the only thing harder than getting into college is flunking out.

It also appears that there are courses of a trivial nature meant to attract students in search of easy and possibly entertaining subjects.

What many of the undergraduate majors will lead to other than frustration in the job market and lower than desired pay is one concern regarding reducing or even eliminating debts incurred by graduates. More to the point, and already remarked on is how this (the bailout) will manage to keep colleges from indulging in further inflation of costs. They have created the problem, and there is no indication of any tactic contemplated designed to prevent them from continuing along this path.

In addition, a bailout will merely pile more debt on the U.S., which has accumulated a monstrous amount of debt of which there is much talk but no sign of any action to do something about it. People keep on spending and politicians in kicking the proverbial can down the road into an ever more problematic future. Offering to pick up the tab for college graduates may appeal to potential voters, but is this a worthy act and is it worth the price (in more than one way) to address a problem with what may well be a temporary solution only to see it reappear later on in an even larger and more monstrous form?

Richard Nash Creel lives in Salisbury.