The only good or service that has increased in price more than higher education over the past couple decades has been cigarettes and other tobacco products, according to Washington Monthly.

Politicians noticed this growing bubble and many have capitalized on it, calling for student debt forgiveness and a new policy of “debt-free” college.

Let’s slow down a moment and look at how student debt became a problem.

Paul Guppy, vice president for research at Washington Policy Center, a non-profit that promotes free-market public policy, helped put the issue into perspective.

“The government has taken the risk calculation out of it entirely,” Guppy said.

Beginning with the Higher Education Act of 1965, the federal government has guaranteed loans to students in order to encourage lower income individuals to pursue higher education.

The interest rates that are charged are fixed and student loans are incredibly hard to avoid paying back.

One politician in particular, Sen. Bernie Sanders, former democratic presidential candidate, has been vocal on this issue.

“It’s grossly unfair that interest rates on student loans are two to three times higher than on auto loans,” Sanders tweeted on April 20.

What exactly makes interest rates so high for student loans compared to other loans?

Think about auto loans, Sanders’ example. If you don’t pay back your auto loan, the bank takes your car away. If you can’t pay back your student loans, the lender can’t take the four years of education out of your brain, which is why interest rates are higher.

There are other problems that come from this system, too.

The fact that these loans are federally guaranteed shows that they’re inefficient and probably shouldn’t be granted in the first place.

A controversial statement? Not really.

“By definition, whenever the government subsidies or guarantees something, (they) makes it less efficient,” Guppy said. “The university has no reason to take into account the GPA or the field. (In this system) there’s no relation between the student and their ability to pay it back.”

If college was a worthwhile investment for everyone, banks would loan us the money without federal guarantees. Under the current system, instead of being charged varying interest rates based on your GPA, major and future income, you are charged the same exact rate as everyone else.

This means that a genius with a 4.0 on his or her way to an engineering degree that will allow for massive salary has to pay the same rate of interest as a slacker 2.1 GPA gender studies major that will probably not have as many opportunities to earn a large future income.

The interest rate you’re charged is a reflection of the lender’s confidence in your ability to pay it back.

In a free market for student loans, the 4.0 engineering student would pay a lower interest rate and the 2.1 gender studies student would pay a higher interest rate.

Some might argue that isn’t fair to the gender studies student, but is it fair to the engineering student to have to pay a higher interest rate?

Another growing problem adding to the cost of higher education is that students are paying through the nose not to hire more professors who will teach them, but to pay for frivolous administrators.

Washington Monthly reports that colleges grew their administrations by 12 percent more than they grew their faculty, meaning there are currently more administrators on college campuses than professors.

In the past, the administrators of colleges were drawn from the top ranks of the faculty.

Today, colleges are filled with “vice presidents, associate vice presidents, assistant vice presidents, provosts, associate provosts, vice provosts, assistant provosts, deans, deanlets, and deanlings,” as Washington Monthly put it.

“The best way to lower the cost of college tuition is for colleges and universities to lower the cost,” Guppy said. “That means school administrators should work to keep the cost down. The universities and colleges set the tuition and people have to pay.”

Since we are all students at a university famous for its large class sizes, maybe that’s evidence our tuitions dollars aren’t being spent that responsibly.

For those among us who would like to simply absorb higher education into the free public structure that exists, understand that only about 33 percent of Americans get a bachelor’s degree, according to a 2015 educational attainment report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Is it really fair to those other 67 percent of people to slide them the bill?

Not to mention that with free public college, we’ll be paying to send Donald Trump’s kids to college, as Hillary Clinton put it.

“In the short run, there’s a question of fairness,” Guppy said. “They’re going to tax people who are not in college.”

What is there to do about the cost, then?

“A lot of universities attract based on lifestyle amenities,” Guppy said.

Here at WSU, chances are if you throw a rock you’ll hit an athletic center. At Louisiana State University, an $85 million water park is under construction, according to Fox News.

“They could charge different tuitions to different students,” Guppy explained.

In other words, you could opt out of going to the athletic center or water park or dorms and pay a lower price, Guppy said.

Simply put, deregulate it. Let colleges compete for students, let banks compete for student loans and let students take their education into their own hands.

Many argue that this method may displace some students in the short term.

If these students are pursuing degrees that won’t get them the income they need in the future, they might need to make some tough choices.

But the reality of the situation is if we want the cost of education to be low enough and still have the incentive to go and complete that degree, we will have to adopt a free market system.

The long run might seem far away, but it’s almost here. It’s time to get serious and get education working for the student again.

Editor’s note: This column is part of a head-to-head series. Read the other side here.

Harrison Conner is a junior economics major from Stanwood. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of The Office of Student Media.