If Donald Trump‘s made-for-tabloid musings have you wondering when the presidential candidates will seriously grapple with important issues, take a look at the brewing debate over college costs.
Even if you don’t carry student debt or have a kid headed to college, the higher-ed debate is worth following. More than any issue, it’s revealing how candidates in both parties plan to show an unhappy public that they have solutions to the current strain of economic anxiety, one arising from wage stagnation, disruptive technologies and tepid growth.
And this debate is yielding a rarity in politics—new ideas—as well as some surprising areas of agreement between the parties.