The college catch-22

College affordability appears poised to play a significant role in the 2016 presidential contest. This isn’t too surprising. After all, for years there has been a steady drumbeat of media attention related to escalating college costs and student debt levels. But while the high level of anxiety around this topic favors policies that attempt to provide immediate relief – such as efforts to lower student loan interest rates – it’s imperative that we use the opportunity to address the underlying drivers of our affordability challenges.

Two polls released in the past two weeks reveal just how much this issue is on the forefront of many Americans’ minds. First, a Gallup survey focused on the economy and personal finances found that 73 percent of parents with children under the age of 18 worry about paying for college – a number higher even than the proportion of low-income households worried about serious medical expenses. A second poll, released by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, found that only 21 percent of Americans believe higher education is affordable.

Heightening these concerns is the fact that just 19 percent of Americans, according to the Gallup-Lumina survey, believe that having a high school diploma alone will “lead to a good job.” This highlights what my colleague Andrew P. Kelly has called the “college conundrum”: Many students feel forced to choose between paying for an increasingly expensive college education – often with debt and without any guarantee of a good outcome on the other side – and risking their future by bypassing college.

Recognizing the political potency of this issue, Democrats have put forth a slew of proposals in recent months. In March, a group of congressional Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced legislation to allow existing borrowers to refinance their student loans at current interest rates. Two weeks ago, as part of her official presidential campaign announcement, Hillary Clinton endorsed President Barack Obama’s plan to provide qualified students with two years of free community college. Finally, last week, a group of congressional Democrats, again led by Warren,introduced a resolution calling for “debt-free college,” largely through increased spending on student aid.

The common thread is that these proposals attack the college affordability problem chiefly by spending more money. While providing relief in some cases (the effects of refinancing are dubious), these ideas don’t address the deeper, structural problems that plague American higher education. And in some cases – such as free community college – they are likely to exacerbate those structural problems by making the system even more centralized and bureaucratic.

While a certain amount of spending is essential for any investment, our political leaders should focus their efforts on fostering an education system that provides a higher-quality education at a lower cost. This means creating a system that is more flexible and innovative – one with multiple, high-quality pathways to the middle class rather than a single one passing through a traditional college education. It also means giving schools a more direct stake in their students’ success – in contrast to a status quo where schools have a stronger incentive to fill seats than to consider how their students fare after graduation.

To this point, the Gallup-Lumina poll results reveal the extent of Americans’ dissatisfaction with the higher education status quo. Consider that while 80 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that colleges “need to change to better meet the needs of today’s students,” only about 4 in 10 felt they are actually doing so. Similarly, just 13 percent of respondents strongly agreed that college graduates are “well-prepared for success in the workforce.” For respondents with a college degree, that number was 6 percent. (In contrast, when a 2014 survey asked college academic officers how they’re doing preparing their graduates for the workforce, 96 percent thought they were doing a good job.)

There is evidence the debate is starting to shift. Presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for example, recently said in New Hampshire, “We have only one way of providing higher education in America, and that is we tell everybody, ‘You either go to a traditional college or you go nowhere. That isn’t working.” And Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate education committee, recentlyindicated an interest in requiring schools to pay back a portion of the loans their students default on – and idea that has also received support in the past from a number of Senate Democrats, including Warren.

Here’s hoping our political leaders continue to move in the direction of trying to bring about a higher education system built for the 21st century – rather than the last one.

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