How Can We Solve the College Cost Problem?

How Can We Solve the College Cost Problem?
Abstract
This essay analyzes the growing issue of expensive college costs and student debt concerning economics, internal politics, and different cultures in the American population. It will also state possible proposals, institutional changes, and lessons from other countries.
Education is described as the key to success; however, much is not being said about the sacrifices needed to succeed. At the point of writing, the national student debt is estimated to be
$1.6 trillion held by more than 44 million Americans. This number is gradually growing with the concurrent rise in the cost of attending a college. Development in technology has revolutionized the workplace such that earning a living wage is more challenging without an advanced degree. College graduates earn 80% more than their counterparts with a high school diploma (Hess, 2020).
Consequently, there is a desperation among a majority of the population to attend college in hopes of a well-paying job or a scholarship pathway into sports superstardom. Covid 19 forced the United States to enter a recession in February 2020. The coming months of March through June saw over 42.6 million Americans filing for unemployment. In the 2008 recession, there was increased compulsion for people to go back to school searching for new skills. Since then, the cost of a four-year college degree has been 25% more expensive, with student debt increasing by 107% (Hess, 2020).
Overview.
The United States government has lowered numerous entry bars to universities except for the tuition prices, despite enforcing innumerable laws. This is due to their efforts to find a new solution to increase access while also cutting government costs. However, achieving such as balance has proved impossible, and the population ends up with the majority of the financial burden. The tax revolt of the 1980s saw Reagan's administration passes a tax and expenditure limitation bill to restrict States governments to a limit of taxation and expenditure (Hayward, 1998). Consequently, the States would cut back their spending on college education, causing universities to raise the tuition fees. The same trend was seen after the 2007 recession, where Federal and State made massive cuts in higher education funding. Therefore, there is a reason to believe that the government will take the same measures as the economy tries to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Therefore, government funding is the primary influence in reducing and increasing college tuition and student debt. However, with every recession, the government cuts the funding of colleges that play a part in the increased education. Since the 2008 great recession, tuition costs and student loans have increased; however, government funding has not returned to the heights of the pre-2008 period. In 2018, the funding for two- and four-year public colleges was estimated to be over $7 billion less than in 2008 (Hess, 2020). Despite this, the United States has maintained its status as one of the high spenders in college education. Luxembourg is the only country that spends more per student than the U.S. however, a college education is free for their students (Ripley, 2018).
Therefore, in the case of the United Stat...