President Biden wants to cancel student debt!

That means every American’s college loans are about to be wiped clean, right?

Well, not so fast…

After all, we’re talking about a $1.7 trillion tab.

But Biden does have a plan which will help with some of the damage…

Specifically, he wants to cancel $10,000 of student debt, per borrower.

Which could eliminate loans for some 16 million people—more than a third of current borrowers.

Now, here’s what everyone is getting wrong:

The question isn’t who’s going to pay for all of this?

That one’s easy. Every US taxpayer.

• The more important question is: Why are we even talking about canceling student loans in the first place?

Nobody is looking to write off mortgages.

You don’t hear the mainstream media talking about canceling car loans…

If millions of students have to be “bailed out,” maybe college isn’t a good investment after all.

Sure, there are some professions that require a college degree.

If you want to be a doctor, going to school is a must. But the vast majority of teenagers aren’t training to be surgeons.

Hundreds of thousands of American kids sign up to get “business” degrees each college semester. Yet… there is no skill called “business.”

The four-year degree saddles kids with mountains of debt…

And a lot of these kids don’t even end up using it!

In fact, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 41% of recent grads work in jobs that don’t require a degree!

I stopped believing in the magic of college when the free YouTube lectures I watched were better than the ones I paid thousands of dollar for.

• College was being disrupted long before Uncle Sam swooped in.

Teenagers have come around to the idea that most degrees aren’t worth much.

Now they’re turning their backs on college. Did you know college enrollment peaked back in 2010? In fact, freshman signups plunged 16% last fall. And last year, tuition costs rose at their slowest pace in over 30 years.

Here’s the thing… top schools like Harvard and Yale will always attract elite kids and command huge tuitions.

But the thousands of schools that sell “standard issue” degrees are a dying breed.

I predict at least half of the 4,000 middle-of-the-road US colleges will go bust in the next decade.

You can already see this playing out. Over the past year, universities have shed more than 300,000 jobs. And many of these schools are cutting tuitions in an effort to attract students.

Rider University is cutting tuition for new students by 22%. Fairleigh Dickinson University announced it will slash tuitions for all new students by 25%. And Southern New Hampshire University is offering a free year for freshmen on campus this fall!

In 2019, ratings agency Moody’s found that roughly one-third of US colleges “were already running deficits.” The recent plunge in enrollment is likely a tidal wave that will crush many of them.

• “If I don’t go to college, then what should I do?”

College critics could never answer this question… until now.

Professionals like mechanics and chefs don’t typically get degrees. Instead they learn through apprenticeships, a few years of on-the-job training.

“Vocational training” for engineers or coders never existed.

Google is changing that.

Google Career Certificates is a series of courses that helps students get qualifications in high-paying jobs… without attending college.

For example, Google will train you to become a data analyst. A job with a median yearly wage of $66,000. You can also learn all the skills to be a user experience (UX) designer. These folks get paid over $80,000 a year.

And here’s the kicker… these courses take roughly six months to finish, and only cost a few hundred bucks. Best of all, Google “will consider our new career certificates as the equivalent of a four-year degree.”

In other words, you don’t have to bury yourself in student debt to get a job at Google. Now you can “qualify” for a high-paying job in less than a year!

Several of America’s top companies like Walmart… Intel… Sprint… and Bank of America have jumped on board too. They recognize a Google Career Certificate as the same as a college degree.

• Mark my words… this is the future of education.

Big, successful brands like Google will disrupt the four-year degree by offering their own certification.

Think about why folks pay so much for college: It’s the piece of paper.

But Google is a household name. Its certificates can be recognized across the world. In fact, they are worth more than a degree from some middle-of-the-road college.

I guarantee Google is only the first of many big firms to launch their own certification programs.

Nothing is stopping Disney, for example, from launching an educational product for kids in grades K-12.

• Here’s how you can profit from the disruption of college.

Back in 2019, I told you about Coursera.

It’s a website where students can enroll in courses from many of the world’s top colleges like Stanford… Duke… and Penn. Coursera also hosts Google Career Certificates.

It’s basically a gateway for disruptors helping students learn valuable skills so they can skip college.

Coursera is expected to IPO this year. My colleague and RiskHedge’s IPO expert Justin Spittler told subscribers last year: “When it goes public, Coursera could easily become the best way to bet on the disruption of education.”

I’ll be watching Coursera closely too.

​Stephen McBride
Editor — Disruption Investor

Reader Mailbag

How do you think the disruption of college will play out? Let me know at stephen@riskhedge.com.

Here’s what your fellow readers are saying:

Tuitions are many times the value received, college and university budgets include large “administrative staffs” that serve no purpose, and aging real estate requires expensive maintenance and upkeep. Worst, the value of much of what is standard curriculum is close to zero. Our colleges prepare our children, by and large, for nothing but protest and underemployment.

Why would anyone attend a lower-tier university or college when they can participate in courses delivered by world-class professors at a fraction of the cost. It makes perfect sense for online providers to offer degrees where they can capture the best of the best from multiple academic institutions.—John

The loudest I’ve shouted all year. Everything I’ve hoped for in the need to overturn the "Social Justice" manipulation and indoctrination of young people in universities has been given definition in your piece on the disruptive potential of online learning.—Chris

Hi Stephen, I’m a recent 2019 college graduate and was lucky to find a good job in a corona-proof industry before all hell broke loose.

I don’t regret going to college. Employers take me seriously and are willing to pay me more. I also learned Chinese in college, which has been an invaluable gift.

However, my program was a joke. Recently, I read about “International Relations Theory...” something so basic and yet it was never covered in any core classes of my International Studies major. Obviously reading on your own is a better education than going to college.

I’m happy that education is being disrupted while I’m young and well before I’ve started my family.—Clarissa

Not sure you got this right. There have been many online universities out there. U of Phoenix, Friends U, and there are others.  What makes these new ones any different?  They need a reputation or they will be just like the others. Think it is a great way to reduce the socialist conditioning the kids go through now but don't see the enticement for it.

Maybe if there were parties locally for the students where beer was flowing?  Or you could have video game football and basketball for excitement?  The experience is where they learn about life and love and herpes etc.—John