The President is right, money you spend on your education is the best investment you will ever make. It is also true that excessive student debt can make paying back the cost of that education a painful burden. But there are alternatives. The best way to get your education and keep your student debt low is to not take on the school loans in the first place. Sounds too easy you say? It’s easier than you think – if you know the facts.

In Buzz Today you can see the way the press is dealing with the challenges of getting an education today. It is a fact that tuition costs can outstrip your paycheck…if you don’t do something different. The old approach of simply enrolling in any college, showing up and taking out piles of student loans will bury you in debt. Source: NPR Obama says higher education is the best investment young people can make in their future, but with tuition costs outstripping paychecks, many families face an unpleasant choice between a heavy debt load or skipping college altogether.

What you need to do is ignore the battle between colleges and the politicians over the rapidly rising cost of college tuition. There isn’t anything you can do about that. Just for the record, I agree with those who say that the rising college tuition is excessive and out of control.

What you can do is take actions that serve your needs even as these political battles rage around us. Here are some tips I talk about in Your Future is Calling. They will help you keep the cost of that important education down, eliminating your need to take on crushing student debt in the first place.

1. The reduction in tuition paid on average is actually about 45% below the tuition price published on the college WEG site. For information on the actual tuition paid at all but a handful of American universities go to the government site COLLEGENavigator. On this site you can see what students enrolled at you favorite college actually paid. You should not pay more. You will if you do not have these facts.

2. The first two years of college curriculum cover what educators call the “General Education”(gen ed) core. Regional accrediting bodies in American require these courses. Notice what these requirements are called – general education. What this means is that how individual colleges fulfill these requirements are general, that is, about the same in every college. This means that you can take these requirements about anywhere, including at a low cost community college, and then transfer those credits to the college of your all important area of concentration. Not every college will accept credits from just any school, but many do. The facts you need to know are which colleges will accept what transfer credits from what source. You need to ask. Don’t just enroll.

3. Many college students incur excess debt through what I call Major, Major, Major. This happens when you enroll in college, take high cost gen ed, randomly select a major, decide its not for you, then select a second major and even a third major. Every time you do this you take longer to graduate and in so doing, increase your student debt. To avoid this, you need the facts about what career fits “who you are”. The career choices are detailed on O*NET

The President is right that an education is the most important thing you can do for yourself and your loved ones. But the Buzz Today insert states a false choice. There are alternatives to high debt or no degree. You just have to have the facts to make the right choices before you incur student debt.