Soaring college costs, cuts in state aid to higher education, crushing student debt and bank-friendly legislation have combined to make indentured servants of millions of the nation’s young people.

Bright students and graduates, unable to find work in their chosen field, are being pinned down in low-paying, dead-end jobs by the anvil of student debt. That threatens the prosperity of the state and the nation. And student debt is driving young people away from careers in the public sector and elsewhere where the pay tends to be low. That’s bad for society.

Nowhere is the situation worse than in New Hampshire, whose graduates, at $31,048, lead the nation in the amount of debt owed. And no state is making the situation worse faster than New Hampshire, which this year slashed funding for higher education by 48 percent, the biggest percentage reduction in the nation.

Nationally, total student debt now tops $1 trillion, not counting the money owed by parents on behalf of their children. That’s more money than Americans owe credit card companies. And student debt, unlike debt from mortgages or credit cards, can’t be discharged by bankruptcy. Borrowers who don’t pay will be dunned mercilessly by collection agencies forever and may have their wages garnished, tax refunds confiscated or professional licenses revoked.

President Obama recently took a tiny step toward addressing the problem with an executive order. Borrowers of government loans or loans backed by government will be able to consolidate them and see a small reduction in the interest rate they’re charged. Education debtors will be expected to pay 10 percent of their income toward discharging their obligation, down from 15 percent, and outstanding debt will be forgiven after 20 years, down from 25. The latter change won’t help anyone for years, and the others will only reduce most student loan payments by a few dollars per month for a small number of debtors. Much more must be done.

The Legislature’s massive cut in funding for the university system was a foolhardy move that will accelerate the movement of the state’s brightest students out of state. New Hampshire is one of the wealthiest states in the nation, but it won’t be for long if it fails to educate the young workers employers need and the young graduates who will be their generation’s job creators.

The federal laws that forbid discharging bank loans for education through bankruptcy were written by a banking industry and enacted in 2005. Private student loans, as opposed to government loans using taxpayer money, do not deserve to be treated differently from loans for cars, homes or other debt. Congress has before it bills that would treat private student loans like any other obligation. Those bills should be passed.

If private student debt is dischargeable, lenders will be far more cautious and interest rates for education loans will rise. That will steer students away from for-profit colleges, which account for half all loan defaults, and they will seek lower-cost options like attending a community college. But that’s a better fate than being 23 years old, $30,000 or $40,000 in debt and stuck in a minimumwage job with no benefits.

High college costs are freezing out qualified students that the nation needs to educate to compete in a global economy. Earlier this year, University of New Hampshire President Mark Huddleston cited a projection that showed that a decade from now it will cost the average New Hampshire household three-quarters of its disposable income to send just one child to UNH. Colleges must find a way to cut costs while continuing to provide students with a high quality education. The alternative, asking students and their families to go even deeper in hock, isn’t an option.

— Concord (N.H.) Monitor