President Barack Obama has this week focused attention on the burden of student loans. He is proposing changes to an existing program to help ease the burden on graduates, who have an average of $28,000 in loans.

There are good reasons to feel compassion for people with large amounts of student loans, especially in this economy. Some of the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement rank student debt as one of their top complaints.

Some students are still repaying student loans decades after they graduate. Interest costs over many years can amount to more than the original loan. Millions of college graduates carry that burden well into their adult lives. The total education debt was last week estimated at close to $1 trillion — exceeding credit card debt.

For those who continue on to graduate school, particularly law school or medical school, debts after graduation can be $200,000 or more, sometimes exceeding their home mortgage. This debt burden carried by young physicians is one component, among many, for the high cost of health care.

Compassion for those with large student debts is appropriate, and it’s good to offer more flexibility in repayment plans. But the loans were taken out by people who knew what they were doing — and they should be repaid.

The bigger issue and one not being addressed is the high cost of a college education. The national debate should move beyond finding ways to make repayment of student loans more manageable to asking why higher education in the United States is so expensive.

Most Americans know that health care costs have risen faster than the rate of inflation for decades. It’s less well-understood that college costs have been rising just as fast, or faster.

The health care debate focused some attention on the high cost of health care, but costs continue to rise. It’s stunning that the U.S. spends almost twice as much on health care, on a per capita basis, than other advanced nations — for lesser-results health outcomes.

On higher education, the national debate should now shift to finding ways to cut the high cost of a college education.

Supply and demand suggests that as long as colleges have many more applicants for admission than they have available spaces, there is no incentive for them to hold down costs.

One partial solution for reducing the cost of a college degree is being discovered by more high school graduates and their parents. That cost-control technique is to attend a community college for two years to earn credits that transfer to a four-year college. Starting at an affordable community college can save students tens of thousands of dollars.

Another partial solution might be a tracking program that still guides many high school graduates to college, but also directs more students to trade schools, as is found in Germany. Many young people would be less burdened by debt, and more likely to find a good job, by enrolling in a trade school program after high school. Trade programs in health care; information technology; culinary arts; automotive repair; heating, ventilating and air conditioning; carpentry; or plumbing have strong job-placement records.

College is not necessarily the best path for everyone. The trade or technical school route should be promoted as a viable and rewarding path that does not impose the same debt load or time requirement of a four-year degree.

It should also be made clear that colleges and universities have failed to control their costs and are largely responsible for the student loan crisis.

Another option might be the creation of a national service requirement for high school graduates. After two years of service in the military, Americorps, Teach for America or some other program, young people could earn college vouchers similar to what were offered to veterans of World War II who earned college degrees through the GI Bill.

Helping spread out or ease the burden of college loans is a good idea. But a better idea is to find ways to reduce the costs of higher education.