Three major things to know about student loans

Obama's order is welcome, but at the root of America's student debt problem is increasingly expensive tuition

• Obama woos student borrowers with executive order
• Student debt hits new high as millennials take 'poverty-wage' jobs
  
• Smart colleges keep tuition high and promise aid to cut it
  

Mention higher education to an American, and the first thing many of them might think of is not books, but student-loan debt.

At the end of 2012, there were about 38.8 million Americans who had some kind of outstanding college debt on their credit report. Most of them, at 15 million, were under 30 years old, with 30-39 making up another 10.9 million. As these Americans attempt to strike out on their own, the student debt hangs over them often preventing them from reaching milestones like owning a house or even getting married.

I was going to have to take out student loans no matter what, but attending a public school that cost $20k per year instead of a private school that cost $50k per year would have been a good choice.

Amelia, Brooklyn, New York