Making college affordable

Ryan Flood

Iowa college students are mired in debt and Congress has done little to make it cheaper for us to attend school.

Across the U.S., outstanding student loan debt has topped $1 trillion. Here in Iowa, we're ranked sixth in the nation when it comes to the average level of student loan debt. A whopping 71 percent of students have some form of debt. The average college graduate in our state owes almost $30,000. One student at the University of Northern Iowa recently told the Sioux City Journal that her debt burden is 'crushing.”

Passing legislation to keep student loan interest rates artificially low is not a real solution. Making loans more accessible only further incentivizes colleges to charge more for tuition. If students can borrow an unlimited amount, why wouldn't schools take advantage?

In the spring of 2013, Braley supported legislation that would have locked in student loan rates for two years - meaning until after this year's election. This is the type of legislation that colleges love to see; knowing more students will be able to more 'easily” afford the cost of attendance, they can justify more tuition hikes. Moreover, it shifts the debt burden to Iowa taxpayers, who would be on the hook for billions of dollars in subsidies. Perhaps more importantly, This proposal fails to address the root of the problem - the rising cost of tuition.

In the last 10 years, the cost of attending college has skyrocketed by 80 percent. College students are falling further and further into the red with each passing year. And due to a lack of high-paying jobs, recent graduates are finding it difficult to pay off what they owe. Unfortunately, their need for relief has largely fallen on deaf ears.

Whatever the interest rate on our loans, we deserve a smarter long-term solution than the political Band-Aid.

Luckily, there is a free-market approach to alleviating rising student loan debt: accreditation reform.

As it stands, only degree-issuing academic institutions are allowed to be accredited, and the Department of Education decides who gets to play the role of accreditor. This encourages cronyism with schools spending a fortune on lobbying Washington to renew their highly coveted status.

But it also keeps tuition prices high by locking out competitors. Furthermore, Washington inflates the bubble by using tax subsidies to incentivize more student borrowing.

The Higher Education Reform and Opportunity (HERO) Act, introduced by Sen. Mike Lee in the U.S. Senate and by Rep. Ron DeSantis in the U.S. House of Representatives, would allow states to develop their own systems of accrediting. Doing so would expand the higher education marketplace by enabling smaller schools, businesses, non-profit groups and even labor unions to compete with traditional four-year colleges and universities for federal dollars.

As a result, students interested in enrolling in customized course schedules or work apprenticeships would have a chance to pursue an outside-the-box approach to learning from a wider array of choices. The law of supply and demand dictates that more choices lead to lower costs. And, of course, lower costs would mean less debt for students across the state.

In addition, accreditation reform would enhance the likelihood of students securing gainful employment even before graduation, increasing our ability to pay off our loans more rapidly.

Iowa students about to graduate are not entering a robust job market. As graduates attempt to begin their professional careers, it's important that Congress embrace an innovative solution that expands access to unique higher education options.The way to do that isn't through some faux-fix that actually worsens the situation, but rather by embracing a solution that expands access to innovative and unique higher education options.

' Ryan Flood, 28, is the Iowa State Director for Generation Opportunity, a conservative youth advocacy organization. Comments: info@generationopportunity.org.