When it comes to higher education, America is second to none.

World class professors, exclusive liberal arts schools with manicured lawns,

and the highest prices on the planet.

That is why there is more than 1. 3 trillion dollars of student debt in the US.

Experts think it's more student debt than every other country in the world combined,

and Americans can't afford it.

There's a long list of people who think the US student loan situation is broken.

How to reform it is where the roads diverge.

So here's the situation.

Students who borrowed for college and finished in 2014 took out an average

of nearly $ 29, 000 to pay for their education.

In just the past decade, student debt has more than tripled,

rising an average of 14 % a year.

And that debt burden is rippling over into other areas of American life,

with fewer young adults buying homes, new cars, getting married, or starting a business.

Now here's the argument :

So what's the real problem here?

The cost of college or the loans used to pay for college?

One school of thought first championed by Senator Elizabeth Warren,

and now backed by Hillary Clinton, says part of the solution

is letting students refinance their loans at lower interest rates.

A seven to nine percent interest rate, when we have n't had interest rates that high in years.

It makes absolutely no sense.

President Obama has greatly expanded his own program.

To offer millions of students the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments

to 10 % of their income.

But critics say making it cheaper to borrow just makes it easier for schools to raise tuition fees.

Another suggestion ; countries like France and Germany with less student loan debt

do it way differently than America.

They have higher taxes to make public universities cheap or even free.

It's a solution that isn't even on the horizon in the US

it also wouldn't help the millions of students currently indebted to the government for years to come.