Ask anyone — for the most part, a college education has lost its traditional appeal as a spillway from the awkward throes of adolescence into middle and upper-class corporate America and is instead more commonly regarded as a heavy financial burden for a privileged few to undertake.

And unfortunately — all other reasons aside — because of its high price tag, post-secondary education is often seen as an expensive luxury that many prospective students would rather go without.

This problem is not nebulous and vague. It is ubiquitous. This problem exists widely across the United States, but it is also evident in Louisiana’s failing education system, and more specifically, New Orleans’.

Individual students are affected, and families are making difficult decisions in response.

According to Governor Bobby Jindal’s proposed executive  budget for the 2016 fiscal year, statewide funding for higher education will decrease by $141.3 million.

The effects of earlier cuts to higher education are evident today; the University of New Orleans has made many cuts to programs, faculty and staff in recent years in attempts to compensate for their $6 million deficit. Earlier this semester, Tulane revealed their annual $20 million deficit, and we are all too aware of Loyola’s current $1.2 million deficit.

When states and institutions of higher education are not pitching in to make education feasible, the funds necessary to attend must come from elsewhere.

These numbers are not merely dry financial statistics. They represent the hard struggle of institutions, students and families trying to make ends meet.

Thankfully, we have a president in office willing to acknowledge and take action about this predicament.

President Barack Obama has made strides to make college education affordable for anyone that is willing to do the rigorous work such an undertaking requires.

One of these efforts is the Student Aid Bill of Rights, which boldly affirms  this belief and outlines certain principles necessary to implement it into action.

Its central premise is holding financial aid offices, private contractors and private service lenders — like Sallie Mae and Navient — accountable and responsible for negotiating reasonable repayment terms for student borrowers, so as to make higher education more feasible and accessible.

With the bill’s implementation, the Department of Education will introduce a website dedicated to processing formal complaints about these miscellaneous institutions by June 2016.

According to a report issued by the White House’s press office, 70 percent of students earning a Bachelor of Arts degree graduate in debt, with an individual average of $28,400 at both private and state colleges.

It is of paramount importance that these students are making informed financial decisions, and in turn, these mammoth financial undertakings should be respected as such and the terms of which should be made reasonable for these vulnerable young adults.

Although the detailed ins and outs of the logistics behind the implementation of this Student Aid Bill of Rights are not clear as it stands, The Maroon is optimistic about what these reforms will mean to the student body we represent.

This is an important first step in the right direction.

It would be wise for students to utilize these resources when they become available, and be vocal and offer suggestions about how to best put this reformation of college and university financial aid and lending systems into effect when the time to do so comes along.

This is a two-fold process: Legislators create and implement laws governing their constituents, but constituents must be cooperative, transparent and proactive in their engagements with prospective legislation, so as to ensure that the product of their collaborative efforts is thorough and comprehensive.

This tug and pull means change, flux and reform — three elements necessary for a dramatic overhaul of unfair burdens and the financial shackles that all too often accompany what many of us consider to be one of the most important investments of our young lives.