Occupy Wall Street demonstrators at a protest against the rising national student debt in Union Square, in New York, April 25, 2012.The US is facing a college-affordability crisis as higher education becomes too expensive for many families.To address the crisis, 2020 presidential candidates need to commit to reforming the higher-education system.Kestrel Linder is the CEO and cofounder of GiveCampus, the leading fundraising platform for nonprofit education institutions.
Interest in the affordability of education is most pronounced with people between the ages of 18 and 29 — a key voter demographic and one suffering greatly because of our country's broken model for financing education.Several presidential candidates have already proposed various ways address the student-debt crisis.
By acting now, we can prevent current and future generations from buckling under the weight of paying for education while bolstering the economy for everyone.We also need structural change that eliminates the need for students to take on significant debt in the first place. The decades-long burden of paying for one's education has become an insurmountable barrier to advancement and prosperity.