Dale Stephens just wasn’t meant for the classroom. At the age of 19, he founded UnCollege.org, an organization that represents a growing social movement to fight the traditional notion of what higher education should be—and whether it’s worth the cost. Stephens isn’t alone. As the costs of higher education have soared, the number of alternatives to college have, too. In the last several years, short vocational programs leading to a certificate have spiked, costing anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. “Today’s high school graduates have a range of options for attending post-secondary education and entering the labor force,” said Tom Snyder, program director of the National Center for Education Statistics. “Graduates also can enter the labor market directly or combine work with studies at a post-secondary institution.” Here’s the silver lining of student debt Wednesday, 18 February 2015 | 7:16 EST | 01:32 Millennial entrepreneurship has slowed, and so has the percentage of debt of those under 30. CNBC’s Kate Rogers explains the complicated relationship between young American entrepreneurs and debt. Source: UnCollege Dale Stephens, founder of UnCollege Great comment by AustrianSchool on CNBC “Here’s a radical idea: get the government out of student loans. Lets have the people who’s money is being lent decide if the borrower is a good credit risk or not. The way it is now, the tax payers money is being lent, and there is very little accountability on whom it’s being lent to because the government intermediary doesn’t care if they get paid back or not, just as long as they can keep getting votes. All the easy credit has caused the price of college to sky rocket during a time of technological advancement that should have seen prices falling.”