The Student Loan Bubble and the West

When schools started competing on “college experience,” a new wave of Manifest Destiny began

The news of the day about the cancellation of student loan debt has an interesting tie to the West and what’s changing here and why. The U.S. Government’s proposed plan to “cancel” student debt for borrowers has some interesting implications. Not just for those of us who did school and money management differently, but for the change rapidly sweeping across the West. What’s that you ask? 

I was there for the sudden shift to resort-quality schools

First, I should address my bias on this subject. My first degree came from the University of Colorado (CU) in Boulder, starting in 2002. During that time, the State of Colorado was struggling with various budgetary issues, lending to a sharp decline in the amount of State funds allocated to CU. During that time, I watched my in-state tuition go from $1,600 per semester to about $5,600 per semester over about 3-3.5 years. That hurt a little bit, and now that price is even worse for students. 

During college, I worked, lived with my parents, and stayed out of the dorms to save money. Luckily, they lived nearby in another town nearby, and gas was pretty cheap. I was guided by my parents to only borrow what was needed for tuition and fees, and to foot the rest by other means. Often, they would help me buy books, fed me, and they let me live with them while in school. I worked full time to keep the debts down most years, and lived very frugally to get through school. 

Fast forward a few years, I went back to school for grad school with one rule: I had to be funded, and if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be able to go. Smart idea, because I did grad school without adding to my student debt at all. 

It took some discipline to get through school via this route – and it wasn’t all that fun. I didn’t get to do the “college experience”, and went to CU to shelter from living expenses and further debt since my parents lived close enough. Hindsight, I think the school was the wrong choice for me, and really only acted as a blank key that I had to cut into something useful to open other doors.

Because of all that, I’m a little bent about the debt forgiveness, because I did everything in my power to manage it and keep debts down, which often meant intensive sacrifice compared to my fellow students.  

And here’s one of the keystones in my bias on the subject; While being told that CU was bordering on bankruptcy due to the State’s withdraw as a heavy funder of the school and my tuition skyrocketed, the school proceeded to build a ~$60 million addition onto their football stadium, and added a multimillion dollar addition onto their gym, including a custom, outdoor CU Buffalo-shaped swimming pool that can really only pose for pictures from Memorial Day to Labor Day (Summer Break for the school, do that math), to give the sense that the school has great college experience and resort-like qualities. 

Around the same time, CU was also winning “Best Party School in the Nation” by a variety of idiotic media sources – furthering CU’s Neverland image as the place to be if you want to party… and ski… and hike… and be “close to nature.”

The rising cost of school did not appear to be due to a lack of money – but rather a change in expectations by students shopping for schools, and some schools’ push to change to catch more of that fun money. And now they’re all crying about their crushing debt after making it rain (money) for four years and one piddly degree in economics or some other navel-gazing-book-club degree.

The student loan bubble is rooted in Manifest Destiny 

My experience was the start of something big happening across the country. American Pie (the movie, 1999) was all the rage. Imagery of students partying like their parents weren’t around were everywhere. Facebook was just getting started. And students were seeking schools that were far away from the eye of mom and dad, and offered the “college experience.” Just like they saw on TV. 

That shift in what students were looking for ties directly to changes at CU in things like the recreation center, the images of the school nestled against the mountains, and the drive for students to pick schools that had a fun image and had resort-like qualities.

And guess who has the most photographable amenities and resorts? You guessed it – the West. 

Most of the students I knew at CU were out-of-state, which is college code for – paying a lot more. Often, these students were on $25k/year tuitions (Y2K dollars, not inflated 2022 dollars), loading up on Parent Loans, and paying big student loan dollars to live and party in town.

And the schools started stacking as many of those students in as they possibly could because they pay more. 

The next big change I’ve observed in the last few decades has been a shift to the Zennial / Millennial / Zoomer generations wanting to “be closer to nature” (see last post). That shift in attitudes hybridized with a portal away from the home area, and an open door to borrowing as much money as needed for a four year party degree has been a boon for schools across the West. 

When boiled down, it looks like schools in the West have fueled a new wave and motive for Manifest Destiny. Yep, that thing from the past that you learned about in history class — it’s where people from the urbanized east, head West to live in scenes that look like Thomas Moran paintings. I hope this isn’t news, but Manifest Destiny never stopped happening. And Thomas Moran’s paintings have given way to Instagram, geotagging, National Geographic, and your friend who went to Rocky Mountain National Park that one time and posted their whole trip on Insta and got a bunch of likes.

When the announcement came that student loans are about to be canceled (or partly), and we’re about to print more inflation-fueling money, I connected the dots that what’s being forgiven is in part thanks to the shift in students seeking out more resort-like locales, and seeking schools that have a fun, resort-like image. The populations it drove here and the money it sent here to Colorado have been like tsunami waves fueling skyrocketing living costs and the numbers of people with exposure to these places. 

The plan to forgive student loans is great in intent and recognition of the problem, but it’s profoundly messy and troublesome for those of us who are impacted by it. You will be impacted by it in continued inflation, whether you have a GED or a PhD. And, I am impacted by it because of how much I forewent in order to get through school and to pay off my student debt quickly. And, all of the people of the West are impacted by it because of how much student loan money led to the explosion of population and housing costs in places like Boulder, Bozeman, Corvallis, and basically every single college town across the West. 

As schools shifted to be more resort-like and students sought schools more for the amenities at and around the schools than the educational quality itself, schools of the West fundamentally changed. The debts needed to get in and roll with the BMW driving party kids raised the bar so high, many of us locals could barely reach it anymore - it’s an act of socioeconomic conquest.

Forgiving, canceling, providing stimulus, or more accurately, printing money to pay down student loans taken on in the last 20 years is suspect to me, because I spent about eight of the last 20 years in schools – I’ve watched the changes – and I’ve paid the increased costs. I know for a fact that most of the debt we’re printing money to pay down has little to do with tuition and fees, and more to do with students over-paying for resort schools, the “college experience”, and the fundamentally changed attitudes about what school is, where it is, and what you want to do after class. 

In that, I find the student loan bubble to be fundamentally misunderstood and misrepresented. I think it’s a consumer debt issue, and I think it has directly fueled a new wave of Manifest Destiny across the West as students seek image and exodus from their urban roots. As we forgive student debt for these reasons, without regulating lenders and the schools themselves, we take blood, sweat, and tears from people who worked hard and made sacrifices to get through school, and give it to those who had fun instead. It’s like watching the kid’s book, The Little Red Hen (1918), play out on a national stage, but with some Manifest Destiny and Idiocracy (2006). mixed in.

The Fleeting West is written by an angry westerner who is tired of watching our economy, culture, and environment get consumed and colonized at the expense of all people rooted in the West. No apologies will be made.