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A protester who only gave his first name as Charles held his sign up during a July 2012 protest outside a Board of Governors meeting in New Brunswick, where the board voted to raise tuition.

(JENNIFER BROWN /The Star-Ledger)

Americans’ student loan debt now tops an unimaginable $1 trillion. In New Jersey, nearly two-thirds of college grads leave school with some measure of debt, averaging nearly $30,000 apiece. Those are the ones who graduate.

Millions of low-income students will never apply to four-year colleges at all — scared away by the cost of a college degree.

In a weak attempt to do something about student loan debt, federal lawmakers capped loan rates last month. That’s hardly enough. New Jersey is considering a concept to offer tuition at a state university or college in exchange for a percentage of grads’ income for 20 years or more. That’s still a shockingly high price tag.

Why can’t college be free?

Robert Samuels

That's the question being asked by Robert Samuels, a California college professor who says the billions being spent on college aid could be pooled and redirected to the nation's public universities. At $130 billion a year, that's enough to pay for a four-year bachelor's degree for anyone who wants one — covering tuition, room and board.

Samuels is president of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers and teaches writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His latest book, “Why Public Higher Education Should Be Free,” was published by Rutgers University Press. Samuels laid out his free-tuition plan for The Star-Ledger last week. This is an edited transcript:

Q. Higher education is big business, even for public institutions. How do you get from there to free?

A. We’re already spending enough money to make all public higher education free. If you take the total we spend on federal grants, student loans and state grants, and the money the colleges themselves spend on aid and the tax breaks we give higher education, we already have enough money in the system to spend not only on higher education, but also living expenses.

It’s very similar to the GI Bill after World War II, when the government subsidized the cost for returning soldiers to go to college and also for living expenses.

It’s really a question of looking at the whole system and having the will to try to fix it.

Q. But free?

A. Right now, when so many students end up dropping out or not finishing because of the high cost, graduation rates are an issue. We want more students to have degrees, but we have many students not graduating because of the cost.

Students who do graduate have a high level of debt. That debt increases if they miss a payment or can’t get a job right out of college. Basically, they’re in debt for the rest of their lives. Some employers will check your credit and, if they see a high level of student debt, they won’t hire you. It creates a whole series of social problems. Free public tuition could solve those.

Q. What kind of psychological shift has to happen for the public to believe free can work?

A. People have given up on the idea that the government can solve problems and they’re starting to see higher education as a private good to be purchased, and that it’s mostly about allowing individuals to increase their potential earnings in the future.

Q. Higher ed isn't a product to be bought and sold?

A. This is similar to what happened at the beginning of the 20th century with high school. Very few people went to high school; now, we accept that high school is a universal public good that’s paid out of tax dollars. We have to apply that same idea to college.

Q. Who's hurt most by high tuition?

A. Middle-class students go into massive debt to attend college. Colleges inflate their tuition, often by 30 percent, and use that extra money to pay for scholarships. The middle-class students who don’t qualify for financial aid end up in massive debt.

Poor students are scared away by the sticker price and related expenses. They either go into debt or don’t go at all.

Q. How did we get here?

A. A lot of isolated decisions were made — which at first were good ideas.

For instance, college savings plans, the so-called 529 plans, were a good idea at first to let people save for college by putting money into these accounts and invest it. But they soon became a tax shelter for the wealthy.

Another example: Financial aid is a good thing that can help people. But a lot of schools have moved from need-based financial aid to merit-based aid, so a lot of people who end up getting the aid are the wealthiest students.

Q. You're saying college is a luxury for the rich.

A. One of the unintended consequences is that schools are often ranked by the SAT scores of their incoming students. High SATs are often correlated to the wealth of the parents.

So, even if it’s unintended, it’s easier for wealthy students to get into good schools.

Q. You write that free education is critical for democracy. Why?

A. As Thomas Jefferson argued, people in a democracy need to be able to understand the current issues in order to participate in an effective manner. If you don’t have a population that’s been well-educated, they’re not going to understand the difficult issues of the time and they’re not going to be able to participate fully.

Q. How much will all this cost? Where does that come from?

A. In 2008-09, there were 6.5 million full-time undergrads in public four-year universities and 4.3 million in community colleges. In 2009-10, the average cost of tuition, room and board at public four-year schools was $15,014; at two-year public colleges, it was $7,703. Do the math: The cost of making all public universities free would have been $97 billion in 2009-10, and $33 billion for all community colleges — total $130 billion.

That seems like a lot, but remember: In 2010, the federal government spent more than $30 billion on Pell grants and billions more to subsidize and service student loans. States spent $10 billion on financial aid and another $76 billion for direct support to universities. Include various state and federal tax breaks, and tax deductions for tuition, and it’s possible to make all public higher education free by just using resources more effectively.

It’s important to remember, too, that tuition rates are inflated because colleges charge more to subsidize financial aid for low-income students and to provide merit scholarships for high-scoring students. If we eliminated financial aid, and each college were given a set amount per student, we could significantly reduce the cost of making public higher education free in America. And the government would save billions in servicing and subsidizing student loans, as well as defaults.

Q. What else has to change?

A. Schools can really control their spending if they focus on their core missions of undergraduate education and scientific research.

Today, schools are spending a majority of their budgets on things like athletics, administration, extracurricular activities and student amenities. There are a lot of ways to control or eliminate those costs.

Q. No more college sports?

A. I’m talking about eliminating the subsidy that comes from tuition. College athletics shouldn’t use federal aid or tuition dollars to support themselves. They should be self-sustaining, which means trim their budget or not exist.

Q. You're talking about fundamentally changing the college experience.

A. Education isn’t the central focus of these institutions anymore. A lot of schools try to please their students through extracurriculars. Schools have to get back to the basics and make education their focus. That’s a way they can also reduce costs.

Q. Would free colleges admit everyone?

A. The same number of students would go to college, but more of them would graduate. Ultimately, that would free up more spaces because students would graduate in four years instead of six years.

Q. What are the obstacles?

A. It would take a national effort. People have a hard time believing we can do anything big like this.

Q. What about private universities?

A. Currently, about 74 percent of bachelor’s or associate’s degrees come out of a public institution. There would still be space for private institutions.

Q. Can free college really happen?

A. A trillion dollars of student debt is hindering a generation. It’s inevitable that something will be done. We’re heading for a larger crisis.

If people realize this, then there’s a real possibility that it can be done.

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