No matter how you look at it, public colleges — including the UMass university system — face a student debt and graduation-rate problem that could impact the future prospects of even those who attain that undergraduate degree.

That’s at least the takeaway from a recent University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees meeting. Trustees Chairman Robert Manning veered from the script of last week’s session and instead highlighted the troubling trend of declining enrollment and graduation rates that’s taking a toll on the higher education industry.

According to a State House News Service report, Manning indicated that since 1980, more than half of those who enrolled in colleges or universities didn’t graduate. That’s reflected in UMass Lowell’s own graduation data. According to the latest available figures, its latest six-year undergrad graduation rate stands at 56 percent.

It should also be noted that more than half of the $1.5 trillion in outstanding student debt is owed by students who don’t have college degrees.

The problem — as Manning surmised — is that much of that student debt belongs to individuals who without that college degree, probably are either underemployed, unemployed or accruing more debt at another institute of higher learning. Student debt — like the mortgage crisis that helped create the 2008 Great Recession — represents the next financial bubble ready to burst.

While Manning focused on the debt load of college dropouts, students in attendance chastised the Trustees chairman for failing to acknowledge the financial burden of current UMass students. Blythe White, a UMass student, who undoubtedly spoke for countless others, said she struggles under the weight of her undergraduate loans.

Eve Weinbaum, president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors in Amherst, encouraged the trustees to back the Fund Our Future campaign based on proposed legislation by the Massachusetts Teachers Association that seeks to increase public education spending by more than $1.5 billion a year, including $500 million for higher education. Students, educators, parents and Fund Our Future coalition leaders descended on the State House Tuesday to press Gov. Charlie Baker for his support.

Whether addressing the macro view of college debt incurred by those who don’t graduate, or the personal challenges of students trying to earn that degree, rising costs can discourage students from taking that four-year step or seriously curtail their buying power for years after graduation.

That’s the indisputable conclusion derived from UMass Amherst’s own figures. According to university’s 2017 Report on Annual Indicators, 68 percent of the most recent graduating class left UMass owing money, with an average student debt load of more than $31,000.

There’s no easy solution to this dropout-debt dilemma. Increased funding for higher education would help, and if the state’s robust economy continues to produce higher revenues, that might occur. However, we advise parents of high school students to view higher education as a business proposition.

That might mean selecting a major course of study that assures a grad of immediate employment, or pursuing a two-year degree or technical certification that also may lead to a lucrative and rewarding career.

No matter a student’s direction, unsustainable costs have hastened higher education’s day of reckoning. And like overwhelmed students, many will simply drop out.