Robert Reich is completely out of touch. I have one child in college (and another headed that way next year), and after health care, this is easily my fastest inflating expense. With college costs increasing at 8-10% annually it is nearly impossible to keep up. My best effort was to begin saving the day my children were born, and while I am solidly middle income, it was a choice and a priority I made very early to provide an education for my children. We had to forego plenty of things, stretch extra life out of our cars, limit vacations, maintain a modest home, and so on, and when it came time to be judged against our peers for financial aid? Our savings eliminated us from any consideration. Of course I am glad we can pay for college without saddling our kids with debt, but as a taxpayer, I am now paying for my kids education and theirs. Not so different from my healthcare (I am self employed), and my mortgage. A college education is a privilege, not a right.

Causation or correlation? Reich says unemployment is lower among college grads. This is true. But perhaps it is MUCH more likely that the type of person who has the discipline and mental faculties to complete college is much more likely to be the type of person who has the discipline to show up and perform well at work!!

I have taken college courses at my local community college and at my local four year college. Some -- most -- of my accounting courses at the two year school that were every bit as good as those at the four year institution, at less than a quarter of the price ($80 versus $373). We simply need to take advantage of educational opportunities that already exist at a reasonable price. The game of college education has been created by our own mythologies, political and cultural. I recently interviewed a individual with 20 years of accounting experience who lamented that in the past she didn't need college - her experience was enough to get her a job. Now she "had" to go back to school to "get" a degree, in order to "prove" she was competent. Why? Because we've made college a requirement it doesn't need to be - and forgotten what it means to simply be educated. Meanwhile the "cost" of college skyrockets far beyond the "cost" that is necessary to become a learned person, in most (if not all) arts. Personally, I don't want or ask the government to help me pay for education. If only the American colleges and universities would please stop gouging me with exorbitant tuitions.

I'm a very left-oriented liberal who still disagrees with this commentary.

I'm fine with people getting education, and I'm fine with the government supporting it financially.

What I'm not okay with is the idea that the government should financially support just any sort of education. Using federal dollars to subsidize a person's education is an investment, so it should be a smart one. That means little or no financial support for educational goals that don't mean a national need. No free money for art majors, we already have enough starving artists. No free money for music majors either. But if you want to triple-major in chemistry, education, and Spanish so that you can teach science to underprivileged Latinos? Different story: I'd vote to give you all the money you need.

The money must be used efficiently. I knew one student who took at least one class she didn't need (to graduate) for every two that she did need. Partly I suspect this was to make her workload easier, but I also know that she had trouble getting a seat in some of the the overenrolled courses. I believe in education for its own sake, but I also have a limit when that education is being funded by taxpayers.

There also needs to be more accountability for providing a quality education. Having taught at public and private universities alike, I've seen too many students allowed to skate by doing mediocre work in one class after another. Part of the premise of investing in the education of poorer students is that they deserve a chance to move up in the world, but I also believe in making them prove that they are worthy of this investment. They should be made to maintain a 3.0 GPA (and watch out for grade inflation while you're at it, because the Deans will be doing everything in their power to make it easy for everyone to get all B's). There should also be a three-strikes rule for getting a D or F. As it is, we have a culture of unlimited second chances, but this needs to stop.

I believe Mr. Reich makes a weak argument when he says "And the median pay of college grads is 70 percent higher than those with a high school diploma." The figures might be true, but that doesn't mean that the education is necessary for the job. I know one very smart young woman in particular who spent a lot of money getting a college education. She definitely makes a good living now, but the education she got is entirely unrelated to her current job (she would tell you this herself). The quoted statement might be true, but it doesn't mean that those jobs would go away if fewer people had college degrees. Perhaps under different circumstances the young woman whom I described could have the same job with only an Associate degree, therefore earning the same paycheck with only half the student debt.