&gt; An education should not cost that much.<p>This is <i>true</i>, but it is not the root cause of the problem - and it is a distraction from the issue because it places the blame on providers. In the past, there was no significant incentive for the cost of higher education to increase at the pace we&#x27;ve seen for the last 20-30 years.<p>The big mistake was pushing for individual loans for each student to pay for college rather than subsidizing the system. This created distorted incentives where schools needed to spend money on &quot;extra&quot; things to attract students who had money to spend, rather than trying to push down the cost of providing quality education to each student. Schools that didn&#x27;t invest would not attract paying customers. Providing the level of service &amp; extra amenities students expect is <i>expensive</i>, and carries a lot of overhead support cost from administrative staff.<p>&gt; making the process of educating less costly by using technology<p>Technology is not a silver bullet. The cost of delivering education at scale is not where the waste is. Much like the healthcare sector, there is a huge administrative infrastructure at every school dedicated to facilitating a complex system of loans, grants, scholarships, individual payments, etc., for accounting. These jobs are unlikely to be eliminated with automation. The best answer is to make them unnecessary outright.<p>&gt; if a degree was about what you know, not just a credential<p>A degree has <i>never</i> been about what you know, otherwise we&#x27;d award them to everyone who has equivalent work and life experience. But it&#x27;s also not just a credential. The value of college is not limited to the academic requirements. A society benefits from an informed and educated populace, and from the personal growth that happens when smart folks learn together. That isn&#x27;t to say that the country club lifestyle of American colleges today is providing services worth the cost...