The student loan debt crisis has been a problem in this country for quite some time, and it has caused quite a divide in our nation. On one side, some people think the government should bail them out of their loans. On the other side are people who think those who took out loans should honor their loan terms. However, both sides ignore the real culprit of the crisis: colleges and universities.
Finally, congressional Republicans introduced the College Cost Reduction Act to hold colleges accountable for their role in creating student debt. It’s a move that was long coming and should have happened years, if not decades, ago. Colleges charge predatory prices with little, if any, justification or explanation. Much of the cost goes to finance a bloated, unnecessary academic bureaucracy that does nothing but advance sociocultural and ideological agendas.
The Committee on Education and the Workforce approved the College Cost Reduction Act on Jan. 31 and sent it to the House, where it must be scheduled for a “full vote,” the College Fix reported. As it has been nearly a month since this happened, more attention should be given to encouraging Congress to hear this bill. After spending most of 2024 arguing whether to spend billions on a foreign country, it’s time the nation’s elected leaders focus on people in the United States. The nation’s college students and their families don’t deserve to suffer due to politicians’ misplaced priorities.
The bill features three main issues that would revolutionize the student debt crisis. First and foremost, it holds “institutions financially responsible for overpriced degrees that leave students with unaffordable debt.” Next, it “ensures clear, accessible, and personalized information about costs and return on investments” to students and their families. Last, it calls for funding of colleges “based on student outcomes rather than excessive regulations that further increase costs to families.”
“Democrats and Republicans agree that student loan debt in America has reached astronomical levels — the pursuits of students in postsecondary education have been undercut as a direct result. Without question, the root cause of this problem is the inflated cost of obtaining a college degree, and there’s considerable room for reforms,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said after introducing the bill in January. “The College Cost Reduction Act is the vehicle through which much-needed accountability, transparency, and affordability measures can be both realized and implemented to the benefit of students and their families.”
Consider that college tuition has soared over the past 40 years, even significantly outpacing the rate of inflation and income. For example, between 1978 and 2019, college tuition prices increased by a shocking 1,375% — quadruple the rate of inflation and eight times faster than when Ronald Reagan was in office.
Through all the outrage, these institutions have set outlandish tuition rates but have escaped most of the blame they deserve. It was the basis for why I previously wrote about how colleges should bear more responsibility for creating this problem. Meant to be a place of higher learning, colleges and universities instead essentially became corporations that charged high prices with little justification, mostly just because students have access to the loan money.
“As a society, it is time to face the music. We are scamming young Americans. College prices are skyrocketing, and college value is stagnating,” Foxx said when discussing the bill.
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Additionally, as Inside Higher Ed reported, Foxx’s bill promotes Republican policy recommendations, the most noteworthy being the barring of “accrediting agencies from requiring institutions to adhere to diversity, equity, and inclusion standards.” Simply put, Foxx’s bill is a fiscal and social winner that all people should embrace. It is doing something Congress should have done long ago: hold universities accountable.
“The committee has a bold vision for accountability,” Foxx wrote in an article about the Claudine Gay hearing. “The structure we are building ensures universities are open and transparent about foreign funding, focused on increasing student outcomes and lowering costs, improving speech policies on campus, and other contributing factors to the decline in public faith in universities.”