College loans

So I'm starting my masters this summer. I'll be working on the Organizational Leadership program, which is a somewhat generic program unrelated (directly, anyway) to education, and is a good stepping-stone for future administration opportunities in both education and otherwise. I found the program through a couple of teachers I work with, who both loved the one night a week classes, as well as the easy commute (it's just down the street from work). It's also somewhat inexpensive, compared to some masters programs I've heard of.

I read an article the other day about college debt, and how it's forcing college students to choose careers other than teaching because the $30k they make a year in teaching won't cover the college loan payments. And then they mentioned the amount of debt these students had - a girl who got a teaching degree (bachelors) and had $80k in debt; another who had her masters and $100k...

My thought is, why in the hell would you go to a college that costs that much when you KNOW you're going into a low-paying field?

Most teachers end up going to school to become teachers from the beginning. I didn't - I wanted to be a vet. I went to my school to do that. After my first year, I realized I didn't know what I wanted anymore, so I came back home, went to community college until I got my AA and had things figured out, then went back to the university.

I went to a community college and a state college for a reason - it costs less. I could have wasted 15 grand a year at the state college trying to figure out what I wanted to do, but it wasn't my money I was wasting, so I decided to go somewhere cheaper. (As long as you get your AA, that usually pays off. Don't even bother if you haven't gotten your AA though - that's a whole other post about non-transferred credits and extra work on your part. GET THE DAMNED AA.)

Oh, and Scott? He paid for college by himself, working 3 jobs. He took out one small loan toward the end, that's it. And he was really hard to convince when I told him I wanted to help pay for college for our kids - he still grumbles about that. He only agreed when I told him that the accounts we were setting up were in our name only and if our kids didn't hold up their ends of the bargain (gpa above 3.2 and working a job to cover other expenses - we've already discussed this at LENGTH) that we could take that money and blow it on a trip to Hawaii. Or something.

Anyway, I'm just shaking my head at this one. People who want to be teachers actually go to colleges that cost 20+ grand a year? Seriously? Why? And this isn't a snarky question, it's an actual, explain it to me so I can understand, type question. We don't get into teaching for the MONEY, people - did you not know that when you decided on colleges?

Any insights?