The Student Debt Crisis Needs a Cure, Not a Temporary Solution | Opinion

The Biden administration’s new student loan repayment plan is embroiled in major legal challenges—threatening to leave millions of Americans with unaffordable payments and debt that could last for decades. Meanwhile, a fresh wave of incoming students is racking up millions of dollars in new loans.

These facts underscore a dismal reality. While efforts to reduce the burden of existing student loans remain necessary, they fail to address the root cause of the issue. Today’s students can’t afford a public college degree without incurring thousands of dollars of debt. Taking out a loan is just a part of the typical college experience—and it is impossible for students to avoid it by working their way through college.

Until we change this reality, we’ll always have a debt crisis. And students will increasingly choose to forgo college entirely—diminishing their potential earnings and denying our economy the graduates it needs in nearly every profession, including in technical fields.

While it might not seem like it now, it’s entirely possible to live in a United States in which students can attend public colleges without taking on injurious amounts of debt.

For much of the 20th century, college was viewed as a public good that bolstered our economy, increased economic mobility, and made us a stronger and more competitive nation. State and federal policymakers often provided enough funding to both public colleges and individuals so that students could work their way through college.

But some policymakers began to question public funding for a college education. Some were angered by college protests that swept the nation throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s. Some viewed financial aid as a form of dangerous social welfare. And many began to make the case that college was a personal choice rather than a public good—that the payoff benefits the graduate more than the public.

Over the decades, when states faced challenging budget situations, especially during economic downturns, they reduced funding for public higher education—increasing tuition prices and boosting reliance on federal student loans. Additionally, a subset of selective, public colleges found they could raise tuition enough to compete with even the wealthiest private universities.

As student debt ballooned and many students have struggled to afford their payments, critics of higher education—often motivated by partisan interests—have been quick to argue that a college degree is no longer worth it.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Study after study demonstrates that a college degree remains a worthwhile investment—and still provides the best chance for economic mobility for today’s students. The Federal Reserve Board found that median student earnings 10 years after entering college were significantly higher for those who started college during the 2007-08 academic year than they were for those who began in 1996-97. These gains hold even after adjusting for tuition increases, and even without accounting for several non-monetary gains associated with completed degrees, including better health and careers that are better aligned to interests.

College completion is also crucial to meet the needs of our future workforce and keep our nation globally competitive. By 2031, nearly three-quarters of jobs will require postsecondary education or training, according to a report from Georgetown University. Four in 10 jobs will require at least a bachelor’s degree. If we can’t fill these jobs, our entire economy will suffer.

We can’t allow the risk of student debt to stand in the way of our future. We need to ensure that students from families without wealth or income to contribute can work their way through public colleges without needing to take on debt.

Policymakers can begin to make college more affordable by pairing increases to the Pell Grant—which helps millions of low- and moderate-income students attend and complete college annually—with a new partnership between states and the federal government. The Pell award overwhelmingly goes to the lowest income families, but the maximum award amount accounts for just a quarter of the cost of college. In 1975-1976, the maximum award covered three-quarters of the cost. A recent bill would help restore the Pell grant’s purchasing power.

A partnership between states and the federal government could control student costs and make debt-free public college a reality. States have more oversight over colleges, are better positioned to curb tuition and cost growth, and make significant investments in public institutions. By partnering with the federal government, they could deploy new federal resources to bring down college costs.

Additionally, updating SNAP and TANF to support program recipients’ access to college would help them get degrees and better align federal and state resources.

Policymakers also need to introduce more accountability and guardrails into the system to protect students from debt that isn’t going to pay off and programs that siphon off federal dollars and waste students’ time. The Biden administration’s gainful employment rule is a good start. And policymakers need to address debt accrued for graduate degrees—a growing share of the debt burden.

We formerly lived in a nation in which students didn’t have to take out massive loans to get a public college degree. We can do it again.

Sameer Gadkaree is the president of The Institute for College Access and Success.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.