The purpose of a higher education had, at one time, been viewed as a public good, to provide a well-rounded general education to citizens that included many humanities courses and as well as science or math. According to this view, state funded college and university research would benefit the public at large in terms of scientific advances in engineering and in medicine, as well as in culture and a better theoretical understanding of nature generally.
These days, the purpose of four-year college is largely seen as a private good, career training, and schools have responded to consumer demand. As for-profit corporations became the leading supporters of research, students of science and engineering were forced to pursue the goals of profit-oriented research programs. Humanities courses, which help develop critical thinking skills, were eliminated and replaced by more popular courses, such as finance, marketing and business. Before higher education was seen as career training, those going into industry and business used to take entry level positions in companies in order to train for a career while getting paid. Now colleges provide that service at great cost to the student and the public. The job market is glutted with inexperienced applicants holding four-year degrees, often in fields that have no relevance to public good.
The cost of higher education has increased drastically in the US as the quality has decreased. Whether they majored in business, science, humanities or arts, graduates are leaving college unable to earn enough money to pay back their loans. Many consider student debt to be one of the great financial crises of our times. Is college worth the cost? Meanwhile many colleges have become very profitable for administrators while professors’ salaries have decreased.
Is it time the government stopped financing private higher education and focused instead on funding state schools offering free tuition for students taking degrees in fields that benefit the public good in exchange for some years of public service?
directdemocracyus.org 
College education can be a great way to get practicable knowledge to assist you in a career later on. But over the last 40 years, the price of higher education has skyrocketed. Harvard tuition, for example cost only fifteen thousand back in 1960. Nowadays it’s somewhere in the ballpark of 70k. So why are colleges so expensive, and what can we do to change that?
The best way to lower the price of school is to, well, lower the price!
College admins often make six-figure salaries that don’t quite represent their plight, often hurting the salaries of professors at the same time. Lowering these salaries and also cutting a few unnecessary expenses could even bring the cost of tuition down to a much more manageable five thousand dollars.
If you lower the cost of college, of course you are going to have a lot more people applying. To limit this influx, increase the difficulty of the entrance exams. Lower paid households who score very high on this exam would be given a scholarship, but this is the only exception. As a bonus, increasing the difficulty of the tests means that the students graduation will likely be better at their chosen profession.
In NY state, the CUNY system of colleges is currently offering free 4 year tuition for NY state residents. Their only catch is that you must stay in state and work for 4 years after your school is over. Some complain that their tax dollars go to fund a school that they won’t attend but will be attended by someone’s daughter taking Women’s Studies. If graduates were required to work for a public good institution for a time after their school, the effect on tuition wouldn’t be obvious, but since these students are giving back to the community their tax dollars (in some form or another) the load of tuition is lightened for everyone.
We started with large cuts of tuition, taken from the overpaid admin’s pockets. Then we moved on to make sure that the flood of people looking to take advantage of this cheap price was stoppered and simultaneously increased the quality of students. Finally, we addressed the cost for those who don’t go to college, and saw that similar ideas we’re already taking place. These combined efforts would make the cost of tuition much more manageable and increase the public welfare.
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