So many high school graduates, just like our own kids when they were that age, in their last two years of high school start to wonder “what am I gonna do with my life?” With pressure from their parents and the culture around them, and many high schools, they are forced to take the SAT test and try and get into a four-year university.  But many of these teenagers don't realize is for more than half of them, approx. 55 % of them, this will result in a debt that they will take 20 years to repay in the form of student loans. It's time to steer our sons, & even daughters, but for the sake of this podcast I’m going to talk about our sons, towards trade school as a viable option after high school.  1. Trade school offers financial security.   Graduates of trade schools earn an average of $55,000 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). 2. Trade schools generally take 1-2 years to complete, allowing young adults to enter the workforce more quickly.  3. Cost:  On average, a trade school education that takes 2 years to complete costs about $33,000. Now these figures are estimates, and it depends upon where in the country the trade school is located.  On average, a 4-year degree at a public university costs about $84,000.  So a better option may be to send your son to a trade school where he can get practical skills to earn him a living by the time he is 20 or 21 years old.  Why so many in academia discredit trade schools: Why have they not been a viable, popular alternative for so many teenage men in our state and nation? Why is there a “less than” attitude about trade schools?  Why trade schools are not widely discussed or promoted in public high schools:  If more students attend trade schools instead of 4-year universities, where the average student spends 5 years, this cuts into the number of students paying into the universities' system to fund the professors salaries and pensions. It’s all about the money, and the billions of dollars that flow into the universities. These are coveted dollars that the universities won't receive if a portion of young men decide to go to a trade school.  4. Avoiding debt:  Trade school is a fabulous way to avoid long-term debt.  Among the class of 2020, 55% of bachelor’s degree recipients took out student loans, graduating with an average of $28,400 in debt.  And 14% of parents with students in the class of 2019 — the latest data available — took out an average of $37,200 in loans. The ball and chain of decades-long debt that these young adults can avoid by getting a marketable, in-demand skill upon graduation from a trade school is huge, instead of getting a degree in some obscure subject, having no marketable skills, for jobs that don’t exist, and having a mountain of debt with no earning power to pay it back.  Secondary education should be about getting a marketable skill that has earning power upon graduation, not some 4 year “go find yourself” escape from reality where the college kid has a lot of fun, but spend a lot of time spinning their wheels doing nothing productive or beneficial to themselves as adults.  The average student borrower takes 20 years to pay off student-loan debt! “...the borrower is slave to the lender.” Prov. 22:7 So there are many reasons to encourage your sons to enter the trades.  And, if these young men want to return to a university in the future for further education, they will be smarter and more mature to take on a 4-year degree or master’s degree, and have a whole lot more understanding about working, the tax system, paying rent, and living  life when they do.  https://studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/