Rethinking college costs: 3 radical plans



Pay It Forward

The idea: Reduce debt by billing students later.

Oregon's Pay It Forward proposal would allow all state residents at public two- or four-year colleges to attend without paying tuition upfront. After leaving school, students would pay a percentage of their income for each year of attendance. Though the exact amount has not been set, the state's Higher Education Coordinating Commission is considering charging 0.75 percent of adjusted gross income per year of college for 20 years. That's 3 percent of future salary earnings for a typical bachelor's degree. Should those numbers get approved, a four-year graduate who earns an average $40,000 yearly salary after college would wind up paying $24,000 in tuition.

"(Pay It Forward) would help a lot of people for whom access to college is increasingly out of reach," says Steve Hughes, director of the Oregon Working Families Party, the independent political party that helped create the bill.

The plan isn't a loan, so borrowers would never be at risk of loan default, which can result in wage garnishment, collection costs and possible legal action. It also provides a safety net for unemployed graduates who wouldn't be required to pay anything until they're employed.



Retroactive degree initiatives

The idea: Help students who didn't graduate by awarding degrees retroactively.

The students in the most trouble are the ones who leave campus with debt but no degree. According to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, bachelor's degree holders earn nearly $1 million more over their lifetime, on average, than employees with only a high school diploma. The average boost in lifetime earnings with an associate degree is just over $420,000.

Some students complete the coursework required for a degree but don't actually graduate because of administrative issues, graduation fees, transfer credits that were incorrectly dismissed or because they dropped out with enough credits for a lower degree, but not the one they were pursuing.


On top of benefiting students, IHEP senior associate Clifford Adelman says the project helps colleges identify barriers that block students from graduating. "Degree award policies are No. 1," he says.


The Saxifrage School

The idea: Reduce debt by eliminating the college campus.

The Saxifrage School wants to dramatically cut college costs, make graduates more employable and simultaneously funnel funds back into the Pittsburgh business community. To do that, the new nonprofit school eliminates the cost of a physical campus -- classes are held after hours in already operating businesses such as nonprofit organizations and coffee shops -- with tuition funds going primarily to local businesses that offer space and instructors.

"Our hope from the beginning (was) to really re-tip the scales towards instruction instead of spending lots of money that inevitably students pay for facilities and posh settings," says Andrew Heffner, Saxifrage director of campus partnerships. "Instead, we're trying to spend as much money as possible on instruction."



"Our hope is to make college as good as (it) has always been, but not with the same ever-growing costs and with the separation from the community that you're learning in," he says.


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