30-40k of debt seems a lot less than many people I have known are in with degrees that will never be meaningful to employers. Parents need to adjust for the world as it is and teach their kids that degrees can be profitable to them in the right fields and without debt. I've known several people who had 100k+ worth of college debt and very little to actually show for it.

The debt is the real problem here. If you have a degree that isn't going to do anything for you then that's bad but with debt everything is so much worse. Debt makes any problem you have so much worse.