U. S. Sen.

joined Oregon university leaders Monday to promote a bill that would tell students not only what their college degree would cost, but also what it's worth as the nation's student loan debt surpasses that for credit cards.

"Going to college is more than an education, it is an investment," said the Oregon Democratic senator during a news conference at

. "As in any investment, you need information."

Wyden said his

introduced in the Senate in February, would enable students to go to a single web site for information on any public or private college. Proprietary for-profit colleges have resisted participating, but he wants to include them too, he said.

Students would get information on the average cost, time to graduate, the likelihood of finishing and what they could expect to earn after graduating. They also would get the numbers on rates of remedial enrollment, credit accumulation and average debt.

It is easier to get detailed information on a used car than on a college education, he said.

"We all understand higher education is the ticket to success," he said, "but it is not always clear what that ticket will cost or where it will take you."

Wyden said his bill has bipartisan support, and he hopes to see it pass in this Congress or by early next year.

Much of the information his bill proposes to provide is available now, but it is scattered among different agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education's

His bill would bring the information together at one user-friendly site. Federal money now being spent to help states establish college data systems would also be used to connect those systems.

Quan Nguyen, 27, who is working on his master's degree in social work at PSU, said the Wyden bill would help him in his job of finding good college fits for low-income high school students who are first in their families to go to college.

His brother, Phu Nguyen, 18, a senior at Madison High School in Portland, said he could use the kind of service Wyden proposes as he searches for a college that would give him a good shot at medical school.

As states, including Oregon, continue to cut back on their support for public higher education, students have seen their tuition skyrocket to compensate. Oregon's seven universities enroll more than 100,000 students, up from 60,000 two decades ago when they had about the same level of funding they have now, said George Pernsteiner, chancellor of the

Portland Community College

has seen its enrollment climb 40 percent since the recession hit, yet state funding has dropped 20 percent, said President Preston Pulliams.

"As the state pulls back funding for college," he said, "most of the cost burden falls on students."

College has become the second biggest investment Americans make in life after a house, Wyden said. As students borrow more to pay higher tuition, they are accumulating a record average $25,250 in debt by the time they graduate with a bachelor's degree. Collectively, student debt has climbed to $920 billion, surpassing the nation's $796 billion in credit card debt.

But college degrees also pay off. The unemployment rate for Americans ages 25 to 34 is 18 percent for those with only a high school diploma, but 5 percent for those with a bachelor's degree,

By the time they reach mid-career, 71 percent of

graduates have jobs in areas they got their degrees in, said President Ed Ray. He'd like to get that information out through a system like the one proposed by Wyden, he said.

"Being open and transparent is always good when you have a good hand to play," he said. "Let's stop talking about things that need to be done and do it."

–