“I owe $77 thousand in college debt,” said college student Amy Rosebruster to her family one night. Her brothers and sisters, all in college as well, nodded with understanding. $77 thousand? 77 thousand? For a lot of people, including Amy Rosebruster, that is over a year’s salary. Yet this number seems common in the field of student debt.

These astronomical loan prices simply do not seem fair to college students, but they are a dime a dozen for American people. The news, too, consistently talks about increasing college prices, increasing debt, decreasing scholarship opportunities and student aid, and decreasing monetary worth in a career after college. This economic situation for college-bound students is unacceptable. For a country constantly pushing for people to further themselves in secondary education, there needs to be some serious and major reformations to the current system to make college more accessible and affordable for all Americans.

There is no denying that costs of college are rising dramatically and are becoming increasingly unattainable for students. This is on no track towards change, though, as 2013 students were in for even more terrifying numbers than previous years.

“The class of 2013 is in for a rude awakening this graduation season. Between ballooning student loans, credit cards and money owed to family members, they are facing an average $35,200 in college-related debt,” said Blake Ellis on CNN.

Not only is this number terrifying, but so is the fact that 12 percent of college students graduating in 2013 do not believe their college education was worth it at all. What does it say about pricing that it has driven some to decide that continuing their education was a mistake? This certainly does not seem like the way to push college for American high schoolers. In fact, these numbers freak a lot of prospective students out, and with good reason.

One of the justifications for this increased pricing is that there are bountiful opportunities to find aid from the government, low-interest loans, work study or a plethora of scholarships. Yes, all of these do exist, but contrary to this belief, they by no means create an accessible education. Besides, numbers of scholarships and student financial aid have been dropping in recent years.

“The recession has led foundations, corporations, state governments and colleges themselves to reduce their support of providers of scholarships, and in recent months programs have been reduced or canceled outright. The cuts come as economic conditions make it harder for families to pay for college and as more unemployed people look for financing for retraining,” said Jonathan Glater for the New York Times.

And it is not just scholarships, Glater said, state aid is taking hits, too, “State grant programs have also taken a beating. In Pennsylvania, the maximum amount available to resident college students has fallen to $4,120, from about $4,700 last year, according to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. California, confronting a severe budget crisis, is weighing the shutdown of a state scholarship program benefiting hundreds of thousands of students.”

President Barack Obama said in his 2012 State of the Union Address, “In today’s global economy, a college education is no longer just a privilege for some, but rather a prerequisite for all.”

In a country where college education is consistently pushed and is becoming increasingly necessary, serious reformations need to be made so higher education is something attainable and affordable to prospective students. There is an insensitivity in putting an increasing necessity on college education while simultaneously allowing its costs to crescendo completely out of hand. Federal aid needs to increase to meet the needs of this bloating cost, and concurrently, regulations need to be put on college costs. As painful as it is to say or hear, the American higher education systems simply have to be further regulated and federally aided. These augmenting prices, these diminishing levels of aid, they show no signs of slowing or stopping.

If there is anything for Americans to value in their future generations, it is their college education. If there is anything for Americans to consider an important part of creating a sustainable country, a sustainable world, it is college education. It is something worth working on.