Last month, Democratic candidates for president stood on stage and said they would fix higher education with a snap of their fingers. Politicians such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders promised to make all college free and forgive student loan debt. While higher education has become an issue in our nation, these candidates’ plans would only make the crisis worse while saddling taxpayers with mountains of new debt.
Fortunately, just as students head back to school, a new bill called the Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act, or HERO, might be the fix.
More people attend college every year, and the price tag continues to rise four times faster than inflation, even as its value declines. Instead of preparing their students for a good life and a meaningful career, colleges too often prepare them for a lifetime of debt. A record 45 million Americans now have outstanding student loan debt, yet a 2018 Strada Institute survey showed that 40% of new college graduates take jobs that don’t require college degrees — and those are the ones that cross the finish line.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 40% of first-time college students won’t graduate in six years. Millions of students have gone deeply in debt with no college degree or career to show for it, largely thanks to subsidized federal loans and the misguided push for every student to obtain a four-year degree.
Voters recognize this reality. In Heritage Action’s latest polling, 72% of voters said they did not believe a four-year college degree was worth the cost of tuition today. Additionally, 71% of voters in swing states said there are many skilled labor jobs available that don’t require a college degree and pay as much or more than jobs requiring a college degree.
The American people understand the state of college today: it’s overpriced, overpoliticized, and overrated. They also know there are plenty of viable alternatives available to those who look. In fact, industries and employers have been suffering from a skilled labor shortage for years: There are currently more than 7 million open jobs in the United States, more than the number of job-seekers. Yet the candidates on stage last month continued to focus on increasing the number of four-year degrees and subsidizing the loans of those who have already graduated.
If all debaters can offer is a liberal plan that fails to fix higher education or create the workforce America needs, what’s the conservative alternative that will actually fix the broken system?
The alternative is the Higher Education and Reform Opportunity Act, introduced to Congress this week by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla. The act would empower states, such as Florida, to develop their own accreditation systems for colleges, courses, apprenticeship, and vocational training programs and curricula. It would also increase transparency in student outcomes, simplify federal student loan programs, and hold universities partially accountable for high student loan default rates.
Under the current system, the government would support and lend to a student paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend a four-year school, earn a liberal arts degree, and take a $30,000 a year starting salary. But it generally wouldn’t incentivize or support an apprenticeship for students to become elevator technicians and earn $80,000 a year in a field that desperately needs workers. Our education system is stacked against blue-collar industry and the students who want to gain valuable skills not taught at traditional universities. That has to change.
Under the HERO Act, states would be empowered to grant accreditation to more innovative programs that currently receive little government help. In addition to blue-collar vocational schools and apprenticeships, states could accredit programs such as coding bootcamps, short-term immersive coding programs that boost participants’ salaries by more than 50% and fill a critical market need.
By allowing states to accredit programs like this and improve current schools, the act would help control the price of college, curb student debt, and ensure students and workers obtain valuable skills and careers.
While Warren and Sanders want to take at least $640 billion from everyday Americans to fund college graduates, legislators now have a realistic proposal to balance the higher education playing field, fix our broken college system, and promote prosperous careers. Americans are clamoring for alternatives, and it’s time for Congress to listen.
Tim Chapman is Executive Director of Heritage Action for America.
