I was pleased to see that 20 University of Wisconsin-Madison students had staged a hunger strike to protest the proposed tuition increase for University of Wisconsin schools. Their willingness to take action is admirable. However, protesting tuition increases is a misguided effort. The unfortunate reality is that tuition costs always have been raised and always will increase. The energies of the protesters should be directed at the reasons why increased educational costs have become so burdensome: the continual erosion of grant money and the increased prevalence of loans as the primary source of financial aid. More pressure must be put on the state and federal government to make the funding of higher education a priority.

The funding of higher education has become an insidious culture of debt. In the past 10 years, loans have become the dominant form of financial aid for most students. According to the College Board, since 1995 the percentage of loans as aid in typical financial aid packages has increased from 45 percent to approaching 60. More and more students, as well as their parents, are being saddled with loans to keep up with rising costs. In 2000, the percentage of all students taking out student loans was 70 percent, up nearly 20 percent from only five years previous.

Grants and other forms of "free money" simply have not been funded to match increases in tuition costs. Funding for grants has not been a priority for the federal government nor state governments. The reluctance of government to increase funding for grants has had a large impact on student debt. High student loan debt not only limits students' buying power post-graduation, but also may force them into higher-paying career paths they never intended to take. The ultimate effect of increased student loan debt burden could be a widespread reluctance amongst present students to take jobs as teachers, police officers, public defenders and other low-paying but highly needed positions. Are we better off as a society when many of our best civic minded students are forced into cubicle-bound jobs to pay off their crushing loan debt?

Professional and graduate students in particular have been hit hard with the realities of increasing loan debt. It is not unusual for a graduate student to accumulate $100,000 or more in debt load by the time they receive their advanced degree. Federal loans (a much better deal for students with their low interest rates) have not been able to keep pace with the rising costs of post-graduate education. In some instances, caps on the amount a student can borrow through federal loans have not been raised in 10 years. U.S. Department of Education statistics reveal that the federal Stafford loan cap for law students has remained at $18,500 per year since 1995, an amount that no longer covers tuition at most private law schools to say nothing of other fees, books and living expenses. More and more students, undergraduate and graduate alike, are having to rely on high-interest, non-subsidized, private loans to pay for their education.

Congress seems perfectly intent on spending their time making sure that today's youth are not corrupted by the image of Janet Jackson's breasts or by potty language in movies or on television. However, it is unfortunate that the government's zeal for protecting young people and encouraging their growth as productive members of society stops at blithe and inane rhetoric.

By ignoring the soaring costs of higher education and more importantly, by doing nothing to alleviate the burden of those costs, Congress and the state governments have taken the position that higher education is not a priority.

Obviously, such a position is profound in its stupidity as the United State's greatest asset has been and always shall be the minds of its people. Instead of protesting inevitable and necessary tuition increases, students should scream and kick over loan burdens until the government, state or federal, comes back to its senses and decides to help stem the growing epidemic of loan debt.

Jake Creecy is a first year law student.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on March 31 2005.