More high school graduates are skipping college and going straight to jobs (includes video story)

At a time when the cost of education and inflation are at all-time highs, many high school graduates are deciding to skip college. Fearing loan debt, students are considering taking up careers that don’t require a degree instead.

Eighteen-year-old Chris Shwarting says, “If I go into the trades, I can make money while I learn and then eventually maybe go to college after I make enough money here.”

Experts date this issue back to the start of the pandemic. Since then, the undergraduate student body has dropped by nearly 1.4 million students, according to a National Student Clearinghouse study. 

President Biden is making efforts to tackle the loan debt crisis with his new student loan relief plan. Some, however, are not in favor of it. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says, “It’s very unfair, you know, to have a truck driver have to pay back a loan for somebody that got like a PhD in gender studies.”

Kenya Cardonne is a senior at Florida International University majoring in Digital Communications + Multimedia Production with a Minor in Art. She enjoys producing all forms of art including film and photography while aspiring to grow in the T.V. industry.