Keller @ Large: Candidates Ignoring Major Cause Of College Debt Nightmare

BOSTON (CBS) - The cost of college has risen dramatically leaving many students with big debt that takes years to pay off.

As presidential candidates unveil their plans to make college more affordable, Jon Keller is taking a closer look at the student debt crisis and a major part of the problem some of them don't want to talk about.

One of the real growth industries in our country over the past 70 years or so has been bureaucracy in the public and private sectors. And higher education academic administration has been a particular land of opportunity. Many work hard to do a good job. Others work hard to create more bureaucracy and - unfortunately for paying students - cost.

It started after World War II, when the GI Bill turned a rich person's perk into everyone's option.

But 71 years later that American Dream is turning nightmarish, with more than a trillion dollars in student loan debt weighing down the debtors and the economy.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's new plan is in line with party policy, more student subsidies paid for by higher taxes on the rich. But she says little about a problem other top democrats have started to acknowledge.

"We can't just keep throwing money at the problem -- colleges have to do their part to bring down costs as well," President Obama said.

A key driver of those costs is college administrators. Their numbers and salaries are growing far faster than teachers. To keep their gravy train going, some prioritize marketing and bureaucracy over accountability and affordability.

For the GI's, tuition was taken care of. Those days are gone.

And even our senior senator, whose ideas the Clinton plan is based on, is talking tougher about why.

"Taxpayers invest about $164 billion a year in colleges," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. "That money is supposed to help support an affordable education for our young people, not pay for exploding numbers of administrators."

Senator Warren, a former academic herself, had been lukewarm toward college accountability measures proposed by the president, but she seems to be warming to the topic now. And in that same speech she noted signs of bipartisan support for debt reform if everyone, including academia, puts some "skin in the game."