y investing in an educated workforce, the United States is marking itself as a competitor in today’s global economy.

In a statement quoted by Bloomberg, he said, “We live in a highly-competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best-educated workforce in the world. That will not happen if, every year, hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and if millions more leave school deeply in debt.”

Quality education is part of our basic human rights

It would also address the government’s current patchwork attempts to make college affordable, which isn’t working for many low- and middle-income families. Tax-based aid is mostly delivered to wealthy families, not the ones in need. Pell Grants, on the other hand, were cut in 2012, which meant students got less aid or kicked out altogether, after already covering the smallest percentage of college costs since the program was created. (House Republicans have had the program in their sights for even more cuts.)

The cost of college has been rising dramatically in recent years, with the price tag for attending a public four-year university climbing 27 percent and the cost of a private education rising by 13

That means that with the money it already spends to make college affordable, the government could instead subsidize public college tuition, thereby making it free for all students.

Free higher education would restore our nation's vaunted but now mostly absent social mobility, create a more capable workforce, and make sure that smart, ambitious young Americans from any side of town can fulfill their dreams.

The Oregon legislature recently created a commission to consider a plan — "Pay It Forward, Pay It Back" — that would finance tuition-free attendance at the state's four-year and community colleges via a 3 percent surtax on the income of graduates, a system that already works well in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Our current, insufficient, inefficient patchwork of college aid relies increasingly on loans that saddle graduates with too much debt and too few options once they enter the workforce.

The rising costs of higher education and mounting student debt is a dire issue in this country. Some of America’s best students simply cannot afford college and either do not attend or leave college with unmanageable debt. This is both deleterious to the country’s workforce and simply inequitable.

At a basic level, there are two routes to affordability: subsidizing to bring price down or making something cost less to deliver. The focus of government policy for decades has been on the former approach. We need more of the latter.”

The student debt crisis is very troubling for those grappling with debt as well as for the financial system in general.

Now here’s the salient point: the actual cost of making tuition in this line of reasoning is less than $62.6B. This is because about 75% ($21.8B) in grants in AY 2011-2012 went to state school students for tuition purposes. This leaves $62.6B – $21.8B = $40.8B needed, to make tuition free for FY 2012.

The gist, then, is that the federal government is already spending the money that could be used to subsidize free tuition. Were they to instead award all the non-loan money to public colleges, who educate over 3/4 of American students, that amounts to free tuition — plus a savings, plus lowered management costs on student loans (especially for defaults), since loan needs will decline.

). The article gives the example of the education achievements in Finland, due to making tuition free, as well as training teachers more thoroughly and paying them appropriately, amongst other factors.

Basically, we have to do everything we can to prepare students for the working world, whether that preparation comes in the form of college or not.  

In most modern career paths, a degree is still as necessary as ever. And students who have the capability to get a degree, but who don’t have the financial means to afford said degree, should be given an avenue to receiving one.

With college debt now having passed the $1 trillion mark, it’s clear that the current “pay beyond your means” methodology isn’t working. With persistent inflation and a crowded job market, something has to be done

As a resident of one of America's prized college towns, Chapel Hill, NC, I constantly meet young people incurring huge amounts of debt to attend college and have their shot at the American Dream. This is just wrong!

College graduates who borrowed for bachelor’s degrees granted in 2012 have an average student loan debt of $29,400, the highest average student loan debt ever on record. 70% of college seniors graduated with debt in 2012

If we can afford to pour billions into wasteful defense programs and endless wars without hesitation, and subsidize big oil, big agriculture, and other corporate enterprises, we can afford to make public college education tuition-free

Did you know that making college tuition-free would cost less than what we already spend on the patchwork of financial aid programs we currently support? According to a recent accounting taken by the U.S. Dept. of Education, the cost of making college free is $62.6 billion. That's less than one-10th of this year's $631 billion defense budget.

We need to ensure that every young person in this country who wishes to go to college can get the education that he or she desires, without going into debt and regardless of his or her family’s income.

In Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Mexico, public colleges and universities remain tuition-free