Parents who never had the chance to go to college themselves dream of seeing their kids get that degree, from the moment they’re born. High-schoolers — even middle-schoolers — are taking college prep courses and studying for the SAT. Full-time workers are taking courses online, even if that means heading straight from an eight-hour shift to a pile of homework. If that’s what it takes to get a better job — to give their kids better than they had — then they’ll do it.

But here’s the problem. States are slashing education budgets. Colleges keep raising prices. In-state tuition and fees for public colleges increased by 42 percent between 2004 and 2014. But incomes didn’t rise by that much. So families are left facing a painful choice. Either they say, “We just can’t afford it,” and pass up on all the opportunities that a degree offers — or they do whatever it takes to pay for it, even if that means going deeply into debt.

Now, for most people, the return on investment of a college degree is still worth it. On average, people with four-year degrees earn over half a million dollars more over their careers than people with high school degrees.

But student debt is increasingly holding people back. Forty million Americans have student loans. Together, they owe more than a trillion dollars. And millions of Americans are delinquent or in default. Even if they do everything they can to pay their loans, they just can’t keep up.

The cost of this debt is real — not just on balance sheets, but in people’s lives and futures. I’ve talked to people who have so much student debt, they’ve put off buying a house, changing jobs, starting a business — even getting married. I’ve met parents and grandparents who’ve co-signed loans and end up draining their savings or ruining their credit — all because they did what parents and grandparents are supposed to do: help out the next generation.

There are students who take out loans to pay for an expensive degree from a for-profit institution — only to find little support once they actually enroll, or they graduate and discover that, when it comes to finding a job, their degree isn’t worth what they thought.

Then there are the students who start college but never finish. They’re left with debt and no degree to show for it — the worst of both worlds. Over 40 percent of college students still haven’t graduated after six years — and many never do. It’s time to show some tough love to colleges and universities that let significant numbers of students fall behind and drop out, year after year.

Here’s the bottom line: College is supposed to help people achieve their dreams. But more and more, paying for college is actually pushing people’s dreams further out of reach. And that’s just wrong. It’s a betrayal of everything college is supposed to represent — and everything families have worked so hard to achieve.

This is also about America creating the greatest workforce in the world in this century — just like we did in the last. The rest of the world is working as hard as they can to out-do us. China plans to double the number of students enrolled in college by 2030, which means they’ll have nearly 200 million college graduates. That’s more than our entire workforce. American workers can out-work and out-innovate anyone in the world. They deserve training and education that will help them do it.

So we need to make some big changes. We need to transform how much higher education costs — and how those costs get paid. For too long, families have been left to bear the burden of crushing costs, underinvestment, and too little accountability.

It’s time for a new college compact, where everyone does their part. We need to make a quality education affordable and available to everyone willing to work for it — without saddling them with decades of debt.

I’ve been traveling the country for months, talking to students and families, educators, legislators, and experts of every stripe — including young progressive activists who’ve put the issue of debt-free college and affordability at the top of the national agenda.

And today, I’m announcing my plan to put college within reach for everyone. We’re calling it the New College Compact. Here are the basics:

Under the New College Compact, no student should have to borrow to pay tuition at a public college.

Schools will have to control their costs and show more accountability to their students.

States will have to meet their obligation to invest in higher education.

The federal government will increase its investment in education, and won’t profit off student loans.

And millions with student debt will be able to refinance it at lower rates.

That’s my plan. It’s ambitious — and we should be ambitious. But it’s also achievable. And it would make a big difference in people’s lives.

The New College Compact comes down to two big goals.

First, we’ll make sure that cost won’t be a barrier.

Under my plan, tuition will be affordable for every family. Students should never have to take out a loan to pay for tuition at their state’s public university. We’ll make sure the federal government and the states step up to help pay the cost, so the burden doesn’t fall on families alone.

Of course, these days, tuition isn’t enough. The cost of living at college has also been creeping up. So under my plan, students who qualify for Pell Grants will be able to use them for living expenses — and middle-class students will get more help to cover their living expenses, too.