A potential new approach to college debt...? - Gifted Issues Discussion Forum

This article may be of interest:
A Market-Driven Solution to the Student-Loan Debt Spiral
by John Tamny
Real Clear Markets
December 2, 2021

Originally Posted by article

Smith�s Student Freedom Initiative (SFI) aims to free the college students of today and tomorrow from the hangover that is loan debt. SFI will fund college education for today�s and tomorrow�s strivers not for free, but in return for a cut of the income earned by those students once they�re out of college, and in the working world.

The article discusses that Smith has retired the college debt of some Morehouse graduates and briefly describes the plan going forward:

Originally Posted by article

Please keep reading.
...
What has long made a college degree most valuable has been what degree completion has said about the individual. It�s a reminder that arguably the most important aspect of a STEM degree is that it�s so much harder to attain than the more esoteric major offerings of colleges and universities that aren�t as quantitative, and for not being as quantitative, are difficult to attach a grade to. SFI will finance the attainment of what isn�t easy to attain. As a consequence, its piece of future earnings will be more certain.

Any thoughts...?

Interesting approach. (And, conceptually, somewhat related to the federal loan forgiveness programs that view student loans as an investment in providers of needed skills to underserved populations, and to the NIH/NSF grants to graduate students for which payback stipulations consist of continuing to work in the field of study.)

It's an open question, of course, whether it will work as hoped. What is clear, though, is that our current system is not working, so I'm certainly in agreement that something new needs to be considered, and Mr. Smith, to his credit, is doing more than just talking about it.

Not the first time this was tried

Here's a previously failed attempt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyRichUncle

Indeed. At the individual level, also in science, and in policy, much of life is a reiterative process: analyzing what worked, what did not work, and making adjustments to test a variety of theories regarding why something worked or did not work... which may lead to success on a future attempt.

Famous saying: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

There are many lists encouraging perseverance after setbacks, rejection, failure. For example, FailureBeforeSuccess.com

Somewhat similar, Carol Dweck's book, mindset, encourages overcoming a fixed mindset and developing a growth mindset approach to problem solving.