Fortune Magazine just published a list of seven things college students can do to "manage their finances" — and the fact that such a list is necessary tells you everything about the racket. The real story isn't that 18-year-olds need budgeting apps. It's that the federal government funnels taxpayer-backed loans into a university system that has tripled tuition in a generation, hoards billions in endowments, and funds the very politicians who keep the pipeline flowing.
Fortune's recommendations include building credit early, budgeting weekly, and starting an emergency fund. Sara Wilson, director of product innovation at Student Connections, told Fortune that financial decisions made in college "impact what your financial security is going to be once you enter your first job." Credit Karma's Courtney Alev advised students to open secured credit cards — putting down a deposit as collateral — to start building a credit score. Financial therapist Lindsay Bryan-Podvin suggested dividing monthly bills by four to set weekly savings targets.
None of this is wrong on its own. But the framing is the problem. Fortune presents the debt burden as a personal management challenge, not a structural trap. The article never asks why students need emergency funds while universities sit on multi-billion-dollar endowments. It never asks why the federal government guarantees loans that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy — a subsidy that lets colleges raise tuition with zero market discipline. Follow the money: federal loans flow to universities, universities raise tuition, endowments grow, universities lobby and donate to politicians, and politicians protect the loan program. That's the cycle. Fortune's answer: make a spreadsheet.
Meanwhile, actual schools serving actual working families can't even open their doors. In Northwest Indiana, a derecho-tornado combo left at least 158,000 NIPSCO customers without power as of Saturday, with schools in Hobart, Gary, Munster, and Portage unable to set a return date, according to the Chicago Tribune. Hobart Superintendent Peggy Buffington said transportation remains a major obstacle: "Low hanging and downed lines remain problematic along several routes." Part of the roof at Hobart Middle School came off. Munster High School suffered roof and water damage. A tree crashed through a window at Gary's West Side Leadership Academy, sending glass through an employee's leg. The Indiana National Guard is clearing streets.
These are real problems — roofs torn off, power lines down, workers injured — and the community is dealing with them directly. No one is telling Hobart parents to download a budgeting app.
The higher education debt machine operates on the same indifference to ordinary people. The system was built to extract, not to educate. Fortune's tips are the equivalent of handing someone a bandage after the hospital billed them into ruin. The question isn't how students should manage their debt. It's who profited from loading it onto them — and why Washington keeps the spigot open.
