Student Debt Surpasses Nation's Credit-card Debt:

Thanks to the Bush administration, greedy college presidents and even greedier banks the nation's youth is being saddled with massive debt, and nobody is addressing the problem.

The cost of higher education has been skyrocketing well beyond inflation for sometime, as colleges and universities spend like they've found the proverbial pot of gold in order to turn their physical facilities into "club meds."

College administrators claim they have to spend whopping sums to build fancy pleasure palaces to attract continuing growth. The real truth is that an administrator's power is directly related to the size of his budget, just as it is for any bureaucrat.

Of course, they'll tell you the cost is growing because health costs for faculty is driving the budget up, and to some extent, that's true. But it's no truer for colleges than it is for any other business.

And then there's the tie between the Bush administration and the banks. You'll recall that the Bush administration dramatically reduced government assistance for students, forcing the latter to rely on high interest school loans from banks, backed by government guarantees. It was a win/win situation for the banks.

(See the story in yesterday's New York Times.)