David Sirota has a thoughtful and provocative column in Salon in which he argues that access to college has become so important that college should be funded like high school.

In other words, public institutions of higher education should be paid for by taxes so that higher education is accessible and does not burden students with a mountain of debt.

Citing Matt Taibbi, Sirota writes:

“…economic and political trends are now converging to force an entire generation into a truly no-win situation: either don’t get a post-secondary education and severely harm your ability to get a job in an already weak economy, or get a post-secondary education and condemn yourself to a lifetime paying off debt that you may never be able to pay off because the economy is so weak and your job prospects are still not guaranteed.”

It was once the case that a high school diploma was prestigious because most people didn’t have one. Once high school became universal (90% of those between 18 and 24 now have a high school diploma), then the high school diploma carried no prestige but became essential for all but the most menial, low-skills job. Now, college diplomas have become entry-level requirements for many jobs. They are not yet as commonplace as high school diplomas, but certainly we are seeing credential inflation, where some employers demand a college diploma for jobs that could be done by a high school graduate.

So the crux of the dilemma is this: How can students pay for college as costs balloon out of sight?

President Obama’s answer was to implement something like No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top for higher education and make federal aid dependent on “value-added” by various measurements.

But measuring the various outcomes of higher education won’t reduce its cost; they might even increase the costs by increasing administrative burdens.

Sirota’s answer: Make public higher education as free as public high school.

When I was in Finland two years ago, the one thing I learned that impressed me most was that all higher education was cost-free to students. The Finns view education as a basic human right and do not believe that people should have to pay for a human right. That would be like paying for the right to vote.

There was a time in the not so distant past when most community colleges were free. They should be tuition-free now. That would be a good place to start.