Across Europe, higher education is viewed as a public good, not a private commodity.
Tuition is free or minimal in countries like Germany, France, and the Nordic nations. Even where fees exist, they’re often a fraction of what American students face. As a result, debt doesn’t define adulthood, opportunity does.
When education is affordable, students make choices based on passion and aptitude, not on financial survival. They can take intellectual risks, pursue the arts, or study fields that contribute to society without being crushed by loans. In many ways, that freedom fuels innovation rather than stifling it.
The U.S. once embraced a similar ideal, public universities built to democratize learning, but decades of disinvestment shifted the burden to students and families. Today, the average American graduate leaves college with over $30,000 in debt. That’s not a pathway to a stronger workforce; it’s an economic trap.
What Europe demonstrates is that affordability and excellence are not opposites. Public funding and accountability can coexist with world-class universities.
If we want to stay competitive globally, we must reimagine higher education as infrastructure, an investment in the nation’s intellectual capacity, not a luxury for those who can afford it.
Question:
What would it take for America to treat education as essential infrastructure again?
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