One of the interesting aspects of student loans is how much the responsibility falls on the young adult, not their parents, to make an informed decision.

The hope is that parents are still a resource of information and will be able to guide their students through this process.

However, a recent poll showed the following:

Almost half (48 percent) of the people surveyed by the Credit Union National Association, a national trade association for credit unions, said they don’t know how many loans their children will need to take out to pay for college. About a quarter of families were also clueless on the total dollar amount their children would need to borrow over the years.

It’s no wonder that many students are having difficulty making informed decisions when it comes to choosing debt. Their parents are either kept out of the loop or are not informed enough to advise their child on the best options to make.

Choosing to go to college is one of the most important decisions in a young person’s life. It’s a shame that so many adults don’t choose to inform themselves to help the next generation.

Student debt has increased at a record rate in the past few years.

Also, compensation for university leaders—presidents, provosts, and administrative faculty—has increased at a record rate.

According to a Institute for Policy Studies paper:

At the 25 public universities with the highest-paid presidents, both student debt and the use of part-time adjunct faculty grew far faster than at the average state university from 2005 to 2012.

The tenuous connection is likely due to executive compensation requiring larger budgets, which are funded with higher tuition rates requiring students to take out more loans and increase their debt.

The salary rates for these top executives is surprisingly high:

While the average executive compensation at public research universities increased 14 percent from 2009 to 2012, to an average of $544,554, compensation for the presidents of the highest-paying universities increased by a third, to $974,006, during that period.

Public universities have to publicly disclose employee compensation. So if you or your child is currently looking for a university to attend, take a look at the compensation for top employees. It might give you a window into future tuition increases and whether or not your dream school is affordable.

At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, “[more] than 50 percent of students…take out student loans to pay for school”.

This, coupled with the fact that more than 60% of graduates don’t have a full-time job, and you have a recipe for economic disaster.

As a result of no jobs and high debt, students are unable to make many of the purchases that “grown-ups” can, like cars and houses.

This, in turn, depresses those sectors of the economy, which rely on a yearly crop of eager graduates and newbies to the job market who are ready to invest in their future.

In the 1950s, “starter homes” were a hallmark purchase for young couples and graduates.

Now, it may be a decade before many graduates will be able to graduate from apartments to homes.

Student loan debt is increasing at record rates.

But the statistics are shocking when it comes to student loan debt and income.

A Pew Research study found that “those who graduated college without student loan debt have seven times the net worth, nearly $65,000, as those who have student loan debt, at $8,700.”

Remember—they graduated college and have the same education as those who graduated with student loan debt.

Worse, a corollary relationship between overall debt and student loan debt has been shown:

While the typical household that owes student loans has about $13,000 in outstanding debt, they have about $137,000 in total debt compared with the $73,000 in debt that college-educated households without student loans hold.

Student loans have become a habit for young people that doesn’t get broken later in life, leaving them poorer than their classmates who don’t take out student loans and more likely to accrue more debt.

The lifeblood of the American housing market is the first time buyer. Whether newlywed, just out of college, or looking to make that first big purchase, the first time buyer keeps houses affordable.

However, due to high student loan debt, young people have had to replace their typical first big purchase (homes) with another (education):

2012 was the first year in which young people with student debt had lower home ownership rates than people without student debt.

The impacted credit scores from high student loan debt also prevent first time buyers from getting mortgages.

When student loans get out of control, they don’t exist in a vacuum. They can create a ripple effect throughout the economy, and without a continual crop of young and eager home buyers, the housing market will have trouble making a full recovery.

When tuition rates were relatively reasonable for college, taking on a small amount of student loan debt was not a large problem. You worked for a few years, earned a higher income, paid off your loans, and enjoyed the benefits of higher education.

However, incomes have not kept up with rising school costs and student loan rates. Now you take on debt, struggle to find a job, find a job that barely pays the bills, and are saddled with debt for decades.

A new proposal is being floated to change the current loan system into an equity system, where investors would finance a student’s education for a percentage of their salary down the road.

In Oregon, the item is gaining traction:

It would eliminate up-front tuition payments and instead take a percentage of future income. Students in state-run colleges and universities would have their total tuition waived in exchange for a commitment to pay back the state about 3 percent of their income during their first 24 years of employment.

It’s good to see people taking a unique approach to tackling the debt crisis. The emphasis on getting a job after college, instead of the hope that will happen, may improve prospects and lower the onerous burden of paying off loans regardless of employment.