The reason so many young people find themselves deep in debt with little prospect of finding sufficient employment is as simple as it is tragic.
By flooding the market for higher education with money, the price of that education has been made artificially inflated, and by removing any sacrifice on the part of the student in acquiring those funds, they frequently make very poor choices of majors from an economic viewpoint.
The solution to this is two-fold:
First: For the already indebted, in exchange for a public apology to the taxpayers you will be granted 50% debt forgiveness. Put on your party hat, you just won half a lottery. The excess 50% will be dischargeable through declaring bankruptcy if desired, otherwise, you’re still on the hook for it.
Second: Moving forward, no more government handouts for college. Not for poverty stricken geniuses, not for racial minorities, not for athletes, not for the disabled, or anyone else. No handouts means no handouts. Throwing money at a problem just encourages more of the problem.
The plain truth is that for the vast majority of jobs, a college education is not needed, even for highly specialized and technical careers.
What has driven this fiction are the restrictions placed on businesses to accept “degrees” as a qualification, rather than using aptitude tests for screening job candidates. That restriction will be abolished. Businesses will be made free to choose whatever applicants they deem best suited, using whatever evaluation method they prefer.