. >> the rules make it very difficult to forgive student debt through bankruptcy, so when they default, it sets off a vicious cycle of penalties and leans that make a bad situation worse. savings. >> this man saw going into default first hand. after earning a bachelor's degree in journalism, and a masters in international relations, she graduated $80,000 in the red. >> i ignored it. it was a big mistake. >> when she eventually decided to face reality, she was smacked with an ugly truth. >> i signed into my account, took a look, and it was $92,000. >> the wake-up call sent her into a spin. she moved in with her parents, got a bar job and started to pay back her debts. >> how do i get the seven to a six. it was a numbers game. >> she is carrying less than 20,000 sh but is not spending money on anything else. stories like this weigh heavily karen. >> i am scared for my father. the fact that i will be going away, i will not see him as much. i feel like he is not telling me. i feel by the third time of the year, you just develop so much fun yip. we are trying to save as much as we can. young households strapped with loans will see accumulative wealth lost of more than $200,000 in their lifetime. >> hindered long term after making an early investment in their adult hoods. as costs climb, higher income families wonder if cheaper acme may be better than other universities, because it is cheaper and will not burden a young adult with debt. >> a modern market, this time on "inside story". joining us for that conversation, philip yager, and marie denham, director of college counselling. and from new york, my colleague from al jazeera america's "real money". let me start with you. since you have seen it from the inside, tell the people who are watching why it is that tuitions have rich so fast. what is driving the costs? >> well, as in your set up piece, the biggest until factor increasing student tuition rates at public universities is the decline in state support for the universities, it seems as if the american dream is in danger of turning into a nightmare. that is that they can see the opportunity, but can't get to it because of the cost of the tuition. as you decrease the support, expenses continue, and the only way - or the major way the university has to thank up for that is to, in fact, increase tuition. at the statement. most universities will be getting more and more sensitive to the impact it has on students, so if they have a combination of an increase in tuition, some form of cuts within the university, to increase expenses. were there no other choices as administrators like yu look at what can be done to economyize, what could go first, was tuition the only fall back position for deficit? >> there are. it depends on the magnitude of the deficit, of course. there are opportunities within universities and i think you can encompass them in the concept of focussing on student first. that is as you make decisions on expenditures, you ensure that the first priority is for the students, because the whole equation is flipped. it used to be for the universities, state support paid for the cost. today it's the student's tuition paying for the majority of the educational costs. in that framework it is important for universities to focus on expenditures to focus on enhancing, improving and sustaining the student experience as students. that means that sometimes some of the other programs and missions taken on, may have to either be diminished or fall by the wayside. marie big am, as the trend conditions, have you seen the kids you advise not only make their decision on where their grades will take them, but where their budgets will. >> absolutely. i work with independent schools. i work with students whose family an aforward to pay the huge freight, and students whose families have no means to pay for the college education. when i started in the profession 20 years ago, aspirations were important, and families would say they go out of their way to make it possible. now i'm seeing families along the income spectrum asking questions about costs, what you get from the costs, ways to get to college and what that might mean for student ideas future. does that many hard nose commitments, is it parents saying the one that the kid had been shooting for, "no, i'm sorry, i'm not going in?" >> absolutely, more families are having that honest conversation. i can recall moment where i overheard seniors mulling over choices, one said "i'm so proud you got into the college of your dreams, are you glad to attend" she said she wasn't going there, because another college gave her more dollars. >> when you look at the way markets work, there was an idea. i heard it a lot in the last 10 years, that this was going to hit the wall. that families were going to say no, i'm sorry, we are not going to spend the money. it didn't happen, is clen more like -- college more like buying a luxury car than it is between buying detergent. >> college is a ticket to the middle class. the fact is all the studies show if you go to college and earn a degree, you'll make more than a high school grad utility. that is why -- graduate. that's why people are playing to pay. the huge loan debts are having a knock-on effect on to the economy. one of ways i like describing it is you have to think of the economy as an eco system, and young people are the plankton. when we crush them with debt we deny them the choice of participating in the economy in a meaningful way. by that i mean consumer spending, cars and houses. and the knock-on effect that that can have. for example, single family homes. we are seeing many built. and there are studies that show homes. >> for every single home construction job, it creates 3-4 more jobs. you can see how all along the food change, that student x is having an impact on all of us. we are going to take a break. when we come back. we'll talk about college education, and the marketplace. what decisions are families making, what is driving them. this is "inside story". >> pain killer addiction on the rise >> i loved the feeling of not being in pain >> deadly consequences >> the person i married was gone >> are we prescribing an epidemic? >> the last thing drug companies wanted anybody to think was that, this was a prescribing problem >> fault lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... opioid wars only on al jazeera america >> america votes 2014 >> the race is still a dead heat >> filmmaker aj schack turns his camera towards elections in the swing states >> it shows you who these people are... in ways that you don't get to see from the short appearances >> unconventional... >> if i can drink this... i don't see why you should be able to smoke that... >> unscripted... >> we gonna do this? >> ...and uncensored... >> are you kidding me? >> america votes 2014 midterms the series continues only on al jazeera america welcome back to "inside story", i'm ray suarez. not going to college versus going, the value of high education is well demonstrated. how much should price guide a family's decision? when and whether a family should give in to the long cherished dream of a particular school and when other options - there are almost always other options - should get a second look. . >> does anyone talk to teenagers about what the consequences are of taking a loan to go to college, how the interest accrues, how payments grow over time, how much time it might take them to pay off debt incurred between the ages of 18 and 23? >> yes, if you look at studies, most of the students that take out loans will tell you that nobody told them of how the numbers add up, how interests accrues, what repayments might cost. as an educator i can tell you that there are a lot of efforts made. what we hear from students in college and post college is no one informed them of what the future. >> are there tools out there, better tools out there in the face of these rising costs for college? >> well, financial literacy is definitely one component of the answer to that question. the fact of the matter is that a lot of kids don't know what they are facing, and a lot of them face sticker shock, but they are looking at it so late in their high school careers, maybe it's time to educate kids about college costs in high school. one student that i profiled was an eighth grade teacher, and she is teaching her kids, preparing them for a bill that is going down the line. it's a fine balancing act. you don't want to scare kids going to college. you want to encourage them. they are going to be better off in the end with the diploma. it's a balancing act of preparing them for a bill that is coming down the line. >> the incentives and the tools at hand work at cross-purposes. we say to kids maybe you ought to work. but it's my impression and i have seen varying stats on this, that the kids who work more take ongoinger to finish. >> it's correct. one of the things where i get angry is hearing people say i work my way through college. when a private institution tops out at $60,000 a queer, how do you -- $60,000 a year, how do you expect an 18-year-old to work through college. if a student is spending time working to pay for their education, it's time away from their academics, and it takes them longer to graduate and it takes them longer. >> a few moments ago you told us how reductions in state support have driven up costs at public institutions. hasn't there gap between of the cost of private and public education strengthen public education hands. don't you have more customers product? >> yes, in fact, you do. not all, of course, but many public universities, particularly those perceived as being high value, you see a substantial increase in the last several years as a matter of fact. in the interest in the institutions, it comes in the form of increased applications. and there has been a response on the part of many institutions to increased enrolment to meet the needs. there is, however, a hidden problem in all of that. that is the cost of educating a student, while mostly born by the student is not entirely borne by the student, and additional enrolments and costs will have to find other sources it pay for in the time of declining state support. that means that there's a scramble that increasing enrolment doesn't increase the overall budget in terms of being able to support the activities. it creates an additionalboarden, enrolment in response to the increase in the public institution for the reasons you describe is a change for the institution to meet. >> we'll take a short break now. when we come back, we'll talk about the future of this problem. are there things put in place, either market forces or loan programs or ways of cutting the ex-costs that might bring relief to american families. this >> hundreds of days in detention. >> al jazeera rejects all the charges and demands immediate release. >> thousands calling for their freedom. >> it's a clear violation of their human rights. >> we have strongly urged the government to release those journalists. >> journalism is not a crime. welcome back to "inside story", i'm ray suarez. you hear all the time that a college education is speption to landing a good job. tuition and room and board rise in price, the graduates are the most indebted history. 70% have outstanding loans. the average debt load 29,000. what does it mean to start your adult life in that much debt. is it worth it? withes, philip yager, chancellor of rutkers, newark. and marie big am from the texas school at dallas texas, and patricia sabga, a correspondent velshi. >> patricia, does college and university costs end up operating in the economy differently from other things that we buy. you know, some of the colleges that increased their prices the most in recent years have seen the largest rise in applications. so apparently price is not scaring people off. >> price is not scaring people off. the fact of the matter is that we are seeing a knock on to our economy of this massive student loan debt burden. and one thing that economists are starting to take a look at is what would be a reasonable percentage of anyul household income? for example, in over half the country right now, tuitions are 15% of median household income. and that is before taxes, that is a really big bite. and the middle class is really, really suffering in the face of rising tuition. and studies show that kids from lower middle income families earning between 40,000-$59,000 are graduating $11,000 more in debt than students from poorer families, and students from affluent families, primarily because the grants are not available to them. the middle class is getting hammered with higher tuitions, and you have to bear in mind that wages have been stagnating for 15 years. tuitions are eye watering, incomes stagnant, and it's conspiring on the students, and debt. >> are there unexpected results coming from that situation that pattisha described, are kids leaving your school, who might have, in another day and age, gone to a private school and been well sought by the schools who are now going to a public university instead and raising the profile of those places. >> certainly. >> i think students will look at our education as an independent secondary school, and the question is whether that in comparison to the cost for paying for ledge. more of our families are looking at public institutions, and sadly, too, more of my students are questioning their major choices and potential career choices. students who used to be interested in education or public service are saying that they are careers that are too low paying to justify the loan debt. there was a lot of long-tefrl implications in the society. >> in the next couple of years, we'll pass the cresting high water mark of the number of high school graduates if the class next year is smaller, and the year after smaller still. that means college will repeat. >> that's already hoping. the crest in high school graduates, we think, is probably a year now in the past. so the spans of institutions like mine has been to expand the educational opportunities with the non-traditional sector. it will be more the adult populations. also work on the side of trying to assist in managing the total cost of making transfer from community colleges to 4-year institution much easier, and that way the students can take advantage of one, the lower cost of tuition, two, the fact that they can do community college close to home don't have to have a residential component. and thus have a much more economically viable first two years, and then transfer to the four year institution that has more opportunities in their major et cetera. they can take advantage of honing their skills and become a well-minded graduate. >> with the pelties they are talking about, is there a point at which middle class and upper middle class families go on strike. close their wallets, saying 5% this year, 5% last year, we can't do it. the question is when are people not suffering, when do they open up to the facts, they are all in this together. i can give you countless examples of where this resonates. another example would be entrepreneurships, small businesses jobs. >> at what point do families get fed up. it's hard to say. they need the diploma for kids to be competitive. frankly the nation is. the united states will be competitive in the global economy. we node a well-educated workforce. when do we as a society realise that this is a problem that impacts all of us. thank awe all very much. terrific conversation. >> thank you. that brings us to this edition of the "inside story" thank you for being with us. i'm ray >> on "america tonight." an aan attack on the canadian capital. one 51ma gunman down but could be more out there? a look at canada's fight against terror and what investigators target. lisa stark also, knit, a choke hold, after i.t. kills it kills a staten island man, sarah ho

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