The average college student finds himself or herself with $24,000 of education-related debt upon graduation. The Project On Student Debt — an initiative from the Institute For College Access & Success — provides this and other harrowing statistics.

For example, the average student debt in Iowa for those who attend public, and private non-profit, four-year institutions is $28,883, with 74 percent of students graduating in debt. Embarrassingly enough, only one state graduates debt-ridden students in greater proportions: South Dakota, at 78 percent.

Looking at the statistics on Iowa State reveals that 71 percent of those who graduated in 2009 left with debt. The average debt of a 2009 Iowa State graduate was a staggering $30,411.

The lower classes in this country are increasingly having a difficult time paying for higher education. Countries like China and India are pumping out more graduates than we are at an exponential rate. College is free or nearly free in most European nations. It is time for an audacious solution: Make public college education free, or as close to free as possible, for everyone in the United States.

Everyone can benefit from a well-informed populace. The poor and middle classes would have the same opportunities as the wealthy to send their children to college. Those without the heavy burden of student debt would be free to pursue what they wished, instead of pursuing a large bank account. A free college education would breathe new life into under-appreciated and underpaid areas of employment, like teaching and social work.

These societal benefits would arrive in tandem with numerous economic benefits. An example from history: The G.I. Bill provided free college education to more than seven million World War II veterans. The bill set the stage for a prosperous middle class by returning nearly $7 to the economy for every $1 spent on it. Indeed, a well-informed workforce drives our economy through innovation and demand.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that a college-educated person will earn $900,000 more during the course of their lifetime than a high school graduate. Free from encumbering student loans, graduates would spend this money on everything from entertainment to houses. More demand creates more jobs; this stimulates the economy. Furthermore, the government would earn more in tax revenue. This considerable increase in funds could then be fed back into the education system.

To critics who believe that students would never fully appreciate something that is simply given to them for free: For every two years of college, require students to participate in a volunteer program of some sort — like the Peace Corps or Teach For America — for one year. Placing more well-educated people into these programs would undoubtedly help society at large.

Financing such a vast undertaking can be done in a variety of ways. Bloated bureaucracies means billions of dollars end up lost in administration. Reducing the wasteful and unnecessary expenditure our military enjoys or taxing the rich — who put their tax cuts in the bank, unlike the lower classes who actually use their monetary relief — are also practical ideas.

For those who want some hard numbers from the actual budget, The New York Times recently did an analysis of ideas that could be implemented to help balance the federal deficit. In projected savings by 2015, returning the estate tax as well as investment taxes to Clinton-era levels results in $50 billion and $32 billion respectively. Allowing the Bush tax cuts for those in the top 2 percent of households on the income distribution to expire would net us $54 billion. The creation of a new 5.4 percent surtax on income above $1 million would result in $50 billion. Enacting key parts of the Bowles-Simpson plan, which would eliminate tax loopholes, reduce tax breaks for companies and individuals, and lower tax rates, could save us $136 billion — depending on the implementation. The elimination of legislative earmarks would save $14 billion. A tax for banks based on the size of their holdings and the perceived riskiness of those holdings: $73 billion.

Cutting 50 percent of the Pentagon’s current budget — which would return us to the level of defense spending seen in 2002 — would net us $342.55 billion each year. This can be accomplished at no risk to our national security in myriad ways: reducing or eliminating our nuclear arsenal; cutting down on space weapons spending; cutting the military to pre-Iraq War size; reducing the number of troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Asia and Europe; reducing our Navy and Air Force fleets; canceling some expensive and needless weapons programs; and reducing non-combat military compensation and overhead.

My above suggestions as they stand would result in a not-so-modest $1.7792 trillion by 2015, meaning we could be spending an average of $444.8 billion per year, just on education. The handful of changes I suggested could be augmented with further cuts of wasteful spending or a thorough overhaul of our tax system to pump money into our primary and secondary schools. The money is there: The Office of Management and Budget estimated that the federal government made $98 billion in “improper payments” during the 2009 fiscal year. None of my calculations even took into consideration things like the $35 billion or so in Pell Grants the U.S. Department of Education gives out each year. New sweeping policy changes can be made while simultaneously reducing our country’s deficit.

Today, there are roughly 13.5 million post-secondary students who attend public institutions in the United States — 6.2 million attend two-year schools, 7.3 million attend four-year schools. The average public four-year out-of-state student in the United States spends $20,000 per year for tuition and books. That leaves $174.8 billion that can be pumped into faculty salary, university upkeep or even stipends for room and board. Imagine it: You and all of your friends attend a college properly staffed by knowledgeable, well-paid professors while not having to pay a dime for tuition or books, and the government sends you a check if you need help with room and board. All of this in exchange for taxing the rich a little more and cutting back on how much money we waste, be it on guns, bombs or bureaucracy.

Education reform is the most important issue of the day because it literally affects every other issue. Nothing could be better for the United States — politically, economically or socially — than a well-educated populace. We can achieve this end by making a good college education available to everyone. It is an investment that is not only feasible, but is demanded by virtue of the future benefits.