A recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report indicates the total amount of U.S. student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion.

For the first time in U.S. history, student loan debt exceeds debt from credit cards and auto loans. But with the decline of unskilled labor jobs, more Americans are attending college than ever before. And that isn’t a bad thing; college graduates earn much more on average than those who lack degrees, and a skilled workforce can produce goods and services of greater value.

Unfortunately, many students are leaving school without the requisite skills for an increasingly demanding job market — but with unmanageable debt that threatens the economic recovery, according to National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys President William Brewer.

“As bankruptcy lawyers, we’re the first to see the cracks in the foundation,” Brewer said to The Associated Press this week. “We were warning of mortgage problems in 2006 and 2007. … Now we’re seeing the same signs of distress. We’re seeing huge defaults on student loans and people driven into financial difficulties because of them.”

A recent Federal Reserve report said more than a quarter of all student loans have pastdue balances of 30 days or more. But any discussion of who is to blame for this trend must include for-profit colleges, whose students produce an outsized percentage of defaults while consuming an outsized percentage of federal student loans.

While students who attend forprofit colleges make up just 26 percent of all borrowers, they account for 43 percent of defaults since 2008, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. The loan-default rate at for-profit colleges is 11.6 percent, compared to just 6 percent for public colleges and 4 percent for traditional private colleges.

Among the more notorious for-profits is the University of Phoenix, whose three- year default rate since 2008 is 22.7 percent.

The school’s aggressive recruiters have been criticized for using hard-sell tactics and receiving bonuses for the number of students enrolled on their watch.

But the school’s business model — using students as a tool to seize hold of a public revenue stream — has made it immensely profitable. The school’s revenue approached $4 billion in 2010, up 25 percent from 2008.

The Obama administration last year instituted a “gainful employment” rule that would cut federal funding for schools with excessively high default rates. But industry lobbyists were able to weaken the rule so much it became an empty gesture — schools will remain eligible if a mere 35 percent of graduates keep their loans current.

In a global economy, higher education isn’t just a necessity for those pursuing careers; it’s a crucial component of a competitive economy. Congress and the White House should treat it as such, not as a cash cow for their lobbyist friends.

— Oneonta (N.Y.) Daily Star