The Problem with College

United States Education Secretary Arne Duncan has spent all month aggressively advocating for student loan reform. He is trying to force the Senate to act on H.R. 3221, which the House passed in September.

H.R. 3221 would make the federal government the sole provider of student loans, which the administration argues will save $87 billion over 10 years, providing more opportunity to college students and funding early education programs.

The Republicans are threatening to filibuster. The Democrats can’t pass it without Republican support, and of course they don’t have that. It is the exact same argument we hear on every issue: Republicans urging market competition and the Democrats urging government intervention. Consequently, it is the exact same outcome: inaction. Nothing will change and nothing will improve.

Regardless of where you side on this legislation, there is a more important issue here, one that nobody disputes. College tuition costs way too much.

We are competing in an increasingly global economy and yet, we are making it increasingly difficult to pay for college. According to Evan Thomas’ recent article in Newsweek, tuition has been rising at twice the rate of inflation since 1982. Attending a four-year private university, he continues, costs 76 percent of median family income. Heck, even a public university costs 28 percent of the median family income.

Due to this, the next generation in America – for the first time ever – may have less formal education than previous ones. One does not require a college degree or “formal” education to be successful, but in key areas – science, technology, engineering and math – it certainly helps us maintain our leadership in the world.

I was struck while reading an article about a medical student that owes $555,000 in student loans. Obviously, she is the extreme case, but there is still something disturbingly wrong about this picture.

As someone who will be paying off student loans for at least the next decade, I ask that we focus less on from whom students should borrow (although admittedly, it does matter) and start asking why students have to borrow so much. The result of such high tuition costs is a disincentive for the next generation of students to attend college. This impacts the ability of America to compete globally; and that seems pretty important to me.