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Keller @ Large: Private Colleges Need To Pay For Role In Student Debt Disaster

BOSTON (CBS) - It's back to school time, and for college students and their families who aren't rich, that means agonizing over how on earth they're going to pay for it.

Surely you've heard by now that student debt is out of control, crippling the finances of millions and exerting a severe drag on the economy, with the possibility of a debt default bubble bursting in our faces in the near future.

The latest federal figures show that nearly seven million former students have gone at least a year without making even one payment on their federal loans, and that doesn't even count kids currently in school who will struggle to pay when they get out.

There are many reasons for this, irresponsible borrowing and exploitative practices by for-profit institutions among them. But as this crisis builds, so too is the pressure building on private colleges and universities to own up to their own role in the financial disaster.

According to Bloomberg News, tuition and fees at private nonprofit colleges now averages more than $31,000 a year, a 3.7% increase last year, well more than twice the inflation rate.

Some of these schools have to do this to survive.

But many have become mini-corporate welfare states, where administrators of dubious utility proliferate at fat salaries, and all sorts of money is wasted on staff and programs peripheral at best to the mission of educating students.

Memo to those in our audience outraged right now because they recognize I'm talking about them – this gravy train is nearing the end.

The marketplace – and the political establishment – won't stand for it much longer.

And you don't need a fancy degree to know that when the customers will no longer swallow gouging, the gougers better clean up their act – fast.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News weeknights at 11 p.m.

Email Jon at keller@wbztv.com or reach him on Twitter @kelleratlarge.

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