Why don't they have a system like HECS in America?

Question

I always hear about how expensive education is over there and college students working their butts off to pay their tuition fees. How can they possibly concentrate and perform to the best of their ability when they are having to earn so much money just to stay in school? HECS is basically and accumulated interest free government debt. All a student (or their parents) have to pay for up front is books, the cost of tuition is collected straight from the person's pay once they have graduated from university and start earning above a certain amount of money, it comes out as if it were a tax. Why don't they do this in the USA?

Answer 1

As much as it would be nice to have a program like that here in the US, it's not as bad here as it sounds.  We have things like Pell Grants (which never have to be paid back) and Stafford loans(that only get paid back one you are out of school) and there are a number of other incentives that are offered to students such as scholarships if their grades are good enough.  Plus there are a number of organizations that also offer grants to students who meet their guidelines.

So we might not have a system where the tuition comes right out of our paychecks, but there are a number of people who qualify for free or reduced schooling.