On college campuses across the country, the commencement speech exhorts another generation to go boldy forth and graduation caps are thrown in the air in celebration. Although the caps will fall down, student debt levels are expected to remain in the stratosphere for the foreseeable future. According to a recent New York Times article, the amount of estimated total US student debt in 2011 is expected to hit $1 trillion – more than US credit card debt. With a tepid recovery from a severe recession and a tight job market, the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

The Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit independent research and policy organization, reported that the cost of college has gone up 900% since 1978.

The emerging risk of student loan defaults and the grim possibility of a future taxpayer bailout, is a systemic risk at least as serious as the series of bank failures that brought the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse in 2008.

We need to encourage saving for college at the earliest opportunity. Parents should start a college savings plan for their children from birth and develop a strategy that maximizes prudent savings and investments and minimizes the need for public and private loans. 529 plans, juvenile life insurance, and prepaid tuition programs are available in nearly every state. The best gift a parent can make for their child is a future without debt.

According to the College Board, the cost of a four-year private college will be over $300,000 by 2020. The time to start saving is yesterday, or at least, right now.