That's the real meme I'd like to undo, this idea that somehow your education after you are an adult who can vote, is the responsibility of your parents. Not only that, but parents are expected to give their kids a blank check. In the entertainment media, parents who insist on input into the type or utility of the education they pay for, are portrayed as tyrannical and controlling. I can remember a discussion on this very board where one poster was asking people if they thought it was right that her parents were poking into her 'private life' regarding what she got up to in her dorm. I asked who was paying her tuition, room and board and her reaction was, to her credit, indicative of a realization that oh yeah, they do have a say, after all. But college is seen as such an absolute right that even someone with a sensible set of values didn't stop to think about the point that her parents were subsidizing her lifestyle and might just be entitled to know what they are paying for. From there, it's a very short jump to "college is a right, why should I have to pay for these loans?"

My own parents told us when we were in high school that they would not be paying for our college. Their contribution to our higher education would be free room and board as long as we were enrolled full-time in school. Otherwise, after graduating high school, we were to pay rent every month we were not in school, with a full-time course load. Some of us went to college, others didn't. My one brother busted his ass to get scholarships because he wanted to go to a good school, and only took out student loans to pay for law school. Because that would be a worthwhile investment. I took a year off and saved from my minimum wage jobs, and kept working when I went to school, at least 30 hours a week, commuting to a local college. Zero financial aid or grants. One of my younger brothers asked my father to cosign a student loan (most of the elder kids knew better than to even ask) and he refused. When they asked why he was willing to cosign car loans for several of our brothers, our father said "With a student loan, if you die, I'm on the hook with nothing to show for it. With the car loan, at least I have the car."