One of the major debates in politics today is whether or not public college should be free. This has seen protests all over the country with many students protesting the amount of student loans they have when they get out of college. The simple fact of the matter though is that we don't need to make college free, we just need a couple policy changes because honestly, students aren't mad because they are graduating with student debt, they're mad because they are graduating and there is not a job that coincides with their major and they have no way to pay that loan back.
Firstly, there are some simple truths that need to be established before we start. The first truth is that the U.S Federal Budget does not have this ungodly huge lump sum of money they spend on the military. A lot of articles about pro-free education will say that the government spends 50% of their budget on the military and this is simply not true. The most current federal government budget has defense spending at about 15%. However, a majority of the budget (46%) is actually spent on social security, Medicaid, and medicare.
Another fact that most pro-free education people like to point out is how well the system works in Europe. If you dig deeper, though, you soon realize the European countries play by a different set of rules. The first one is that they mostly rely on us for protection. Only 5 countries in NATO actually meet the GDP spending requirement. Therefore, when people point to countries in Europe, don't hold your breath. Another fact to point out is that a lot of these European countries tell you what you are going to major in assuming you even get accepted to college. Germany, for instance, has a robust manufacturing middle class that always gets overlooked but it is actually a cornerstone of their economy. Many students go into apprenticeships vs. college.
If America was to go to a free public education system, the freedom to choose your major would be lost. The government would rack up insurmountable debt from allowing everyone to go to college when there are no jobs for when they get out. The truth is, free education could work, but you would have to have extremely detailed models of what the country will need in 4 years time (the time it takes to get an education) and then everyone who wanted an education could apply, but only few would be selected. The idea behind this is that while the government is paying for your education, your payback will be helping to expand the GDP and be a contributing taxpayer. Following this theory, the only jobs that would always be in demand would be stereotypical STEM degrees.
So how does America fix the student debt crisis? The first step we need to do is stop shoving down every kid's throat that they need to go to college to be successful. Politicians love to talk about a shrinking middle class, but it is shrinking because nobody ever pushes the fact that the bread and butter of the middle class is vocational training in areas such as carpentry, pipe fitting, mechanic, etc. When everyone goes to college, they either end up doing very well and move into the upper class, or they can't find a job and despise the idea of being a filthy blue collar worker. Don't believe that there are high paying blue collar jobs? Here is an article by Forbes that is titled 20 High Paying Blue-Collar Jobs.
The next thing America has to do is stop giving in to kids. We cannot keep telling Timmy and Sally that you can be anything you want and the opportunities are endless. Sure, you can be anything you want, and the opportunities are endless, but the opportunities are not always endless for what you want to be. The simple truth is that STEM degrees are always developing and people are always doing research. Think of a problem and how to fix it and you can put a team of people on that. However, you do not need a team to teach English, or write a book. STEM fields make their own jobs by trying to answer new questions, a lot of the Arts cannot do that and the amount of jobs there are is dependent on the population. So, every time someone says "You can be whatever you want to be" needs to add the disclaimer *but if you want to be successful you should major in this......."
Finally, the last thing America needs to do is stop being lazy and phase out the H1B visa. This visa allows companies to employ non-Americans in fields which require technical and theoretical specialists. It has been proposed before to get rid of this visa, but the fact is that this visa isn't a job killer and companies panic when anyone proposes getting rid of it. Americans are extremely lazy when it comes to education. Everyone wants to get a B.A or a B.S but nobody ever wants to get a masters or doctorate. It's actually somewhat of an epidemic so much that it is easier to get graduate school paid for than it is to get your undergrad paid for. If Americans were to, however, start going to grad school and we phased out the H1-B, the American GDP would increase by quite a bit.
