Paywalled, but the original post from the Warren campaign is here: https://medium.com/@teamwarren/im-calling-for-something-truly-transformational-universal-fre

Paywalled, but the original post from the Warren campaign is here: https://medium.com/@teamwarren/im-calling-for-something-truly-transformational-universal-free-public-college-and-cancellation-of-a246cd0f910f https://medium.com/@teamwarren/im-calling-for-something-trul... Warren lays out the main cause of the student debt problem here: > The enormous student debt burden weighing down our economy isn’t the result of laziness or irresponsibility. It’s the result of a government that has consistently put the interests of the wealthy and well-connected over the interests of working families. Although this may be true, it avoids another important part of the problem: Federal student loan guarantees have flooded the higher education market with easy money for decades. Families who have no business being in this market (either on academic or economic grounds) have been lured in by artificially low rates. This problem is not unlike the one created by the federal guarantee on mortgages. In both cases, the outcome was similar: skyrocketing prices, decreasing affordability, massive debt burden, and systemic risk. In the case of higher education, there's another factor - college has moved from being an option for some kids to a mandatory thing every kid must do. This, despite the proliferation of high-quality information sources on every topic imaginable. Many universities publish their lectures in full. Higher ed has become an expensive, seemingly mandatory credential as a result. An unnecessary four-year detour that hobbles many young people for decades afterwards. Maybe it's time to think differently about the problem. Maybe it's time for the federal government to step away, completely, and let the price of a college credential collapse under its own weight.