The rise of college tuition has made many students go into debt, and many others fear going into college with the burden of the high costs to attend. So, who is to take the blame for this?

Students from Triton High, like many other high schools, face the ongoing problem of college tuition costs. The constant rise of tuition forces many students into debt each year, and many here at Triton worry about what their lives beyond college. For students, it’s important to understand why they’re in this situation.

Timothy Coyle has spent the majority of his life teaching politics and government to students at Triton High School. Since he teaches seniors, and has two kids currently enrolled in college, he cares deeply about the rise of college debt.

“It’s basic economics; supply and demand,” said Coyle. “As the economy changed and mainly muscle jobs and factory jobs left the United States, and were being replaced with service jobs. It was required to have a higher level of education and training, so much so that it became crucial for schools and leaders to encourage a higher percentage of young people to go college.”

Laura Kuleszka is another teacher teacher at Triton High. Kuleszka teaches business law and finance classes at the high school. To give her take on the matter, Kuleszka agreed to an interview.

“Demand is high,” said Kuleszka. “More people are attending college than 30 years ago. When I went to college, tuition was so much cheaper than it is now.”

Mehgan Ober is the director of guidance at Triton High School. She is closely connected to many seniors at Triton as she helps many of them and their parents in the college application process.

“They are obviously businesses,” said Ober. “As a result they need to constantly compete against each other to get students, and a way to do that is to continue to offer innovative programs, nice buildings, and to have very beautiful facilities. And that’s all great, but it comes with a cost. To put it into perspective, as someone who is working now, I still have debt.”

Aside from those who have experienced college for themselves, Linda Freeman had a project on college tuition. While researching, she found information for what colleges spend most of their money on, which are the reasons for driving up the cost of tuition.

“Colleges spend most of their money on the buildings and advisors,” said Freeman. “Not the teachers.”

College can be a great experience. People describe the time living in college as the “college experience”. For Jeremy Dufford, it’s a saying used to attract kids coming out of high school to go to college.

“When I hear college experience I think of parties,” said Jeremy Dufford. “I absolutely think the term college experience is used to attract kids to go to college.”

However, as great as that sounds, life after college could be strenuous for those who rack up a high debt, which brings up a question. Is college worth all the debt?