Clearing Student Debt

In our upcoming election a "hot button issue" is the student debt crisis, our country currently has $1.6 Trillion in Student Loan debt. In a Washington Post Article regarding student debt, author, Micheal Birmbaum, states "European students stare with astonishment at the burden their American peers take on" and mentioned that free education can be done in Germany because luxuries at Universities are kept to a minimum and buildings are mostly built from the rubble left after WWII. Birmbaum also asked a German University student, Alexandra Decker how she felt about the issue. Decker stated, "Education should be paid for by the whole society". A prominent American politician; Senator Bernie Sanders, supports this idea and stated on the week of June 17th on a Facebook post "In Germany, college tuition is free. In America, it’s increasingly unaffordable". According to Times Higher Education about 81 different countries across Europe, Latin America, Central Asia, and North Africa offer some sort of free higher education. Astonishingly, the US is the major power on the world stage that has an issue that has been managed by nations that have far fewer resources. Although in some cases in Scandinavian countries access to free higher education is restricted to domestic students only. At one point Germany also tested with tuition which were around $567 but was ended in 2014. A Vox video published on YouTube, in August of this year explains how we got to this point and if all student debt were to be cleared; also show who would benefit the most. Clearing this debt is very much possible, countries with fewer resources than America keep their populous educated because as a society everyone benefits from it, the same is possible here. Referring back to Washington Post writer; Micheal Birmbaum he stated: "Germany is often singled out for focus by U.S. policymakers. Its economy drives Europe. Its unemployment rates are low. And it manages to power a tuition-free university system without breaking the bank." So America let's take the initiative to do something about this and not be the only major Western Power to have this much student debt.