The student loan landscape is looking grim, with a record-high horizon that must seem pretty far off and not all that comforting for a lot of borrowers.

Last year, the amount of student loans borrowed crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time. This year, the total amount of outstanding debt from student loans will eclipse $1 trillion, the highest figure in history. And, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards.

As the stagnant economy continues to falter and sources of state and federal education funding continues to be cut, colleges and universities seek to make up the difference through tuition hikes. The increases, which far outpace inflation, are driving students to borrow more student loans to pay for college. In essence, higher education revenue is becoming less subsidized by taxpayer grants and more subsidized by taxpayer loans to student borrowers.

via Debt From Student Loans Will Eclipse $1 Trillion Before the End of the Year | Student Loans Blog.

While we might be happy to dismiss the student loan bubble as a matter of personal responsibility (as with the housing bubble), we have seen that when the figures rise this high, we risk a public catastrophe whether we like it or not.