Graduating from college might be worth it, but the total societal cost of college has to include those who attend, rack up debt, but do not graduate. You can't

Graduating from college might be worth it, but the total societal cost of college has to include those who attend, rack up debt, but do not graduate. You can't present college as a sure thing when actually graduating from it will never, ever be a sure thing. And no matter how strong the case may be for college, in the end there's no glossing over costs. I just checked the total cost of attendance for our state school here, and it is 20K/year for residents. 80K-ish in debt is a big, serious, worth-thinking-over decision, full stop. Presenting this as a no-brainer will always be irresponsible until the costs go down. And even if the debt pays off over the course of your multi-decade career, it's worth asking the question of whether paying down such debt already when you are so young is going to be how you want to kick off your adult life. Not claiming to have the answer to that one. Ultimately I think it's flawed to claim a form of education that is so outrageously expensive should be just as crucial as high school. If you can't reasonably save for it, it should be a luxury.