Much has been said in recent years about the subject of student loan debt. Government subsidies combined with increased demand from students and prospective employers have caused the price of a college education to skyrocket in recent decades. Michael J. Robillard, who has a number of degrees and letters after his name, says enough is enough.

According to a 2022 “Average Cost of College & Tuition” report from Education Data Initiative, the average annual cost for a student attending a four-year college is $35,331 (including books, supplies, and living expenses). Even a typical student attending an in-state four-year public university is paying more than $25,000 per year. While community colleges are less expensive, they still cost students an average $7,460 total or $1,865 per semester.

Over the last 20 years, average college costs have more than doubled. On top of whatever they spent on undergrad, students can expect to spend an average of more than $200,000 for law school or medical school, more than $100,000 for a doctorate, or well over $60,000 for a master’s degree.

Is this political? Not necessarily, he says, even though the Left’s answers of debt “forgiveness” and “free” college are totally wrong.

But at least those on the left don’t deny that an aggregate national student loan debt estimated at up to $1,930,446,972,357 (as of Feb. 15, 2022) is a problem — a problem that is, by the way, accruing interest at approximately $3,000 per second.

So what can be done?

There are four courses of action that could be — and should be — done now, if we were truly serious about education.

First, as preparation: Break the current system of K–12 public education that provides little in terms of real education and merely puts students on a conveyor belt to our clown-college universities. Enact absolute school choice, with no preschool requirements, and insist that parents are the primary educators of their children (which is simply a neglected truth). And if you’re a parent, unless you have a stellar private school, homeschool your kids. …

Second, at the state level, state legislators should slash public funding of state colleges and universities. State funding should be based on how well these schools serve the public interest by requiring courses in the great books of Western civilization, American history, and civics; the acquisition of employable skills; and the rate at which graduates get well-paying private-sector jobs. …

Third, at the federal level, massive taxpayer subsidies and federal funding for research grants need to be overseen more diligently by Congress. …

Fourth, at private schools, alumni need to exert their authority. Money talks, as does involvement on alumni boards.

Finally, Robillard concludes:

There’s much more to life than school. And college is anything but a life requirement. For most students, college is not just morally and intellectually degrading, it’s a bad investment. You can go on to trade school, apprentice yourself to a craftsman, become an entrepreneur, or commit yourself to any of a hundred other things such as working as an actor, a delivery driver, a florist, a personal trainer, a salesman, a chef, or a real estate agent. With a trade, and without college debt, you can get on with your life. Young, skilled workers can be truly free, financially and intellectually, in a way that indebted and indoctrinated former college students aren’t.

Read the whole thing here.