SNEK POLICY
College Should Train You for a Profession, Not Decide What Kind of Person You Need to Become
SNEK believes college should treat students as individuals with specific goals, not as a herd that administrators can force through one standardized life curriculum.
Eliminate mandatory general education requirements
Students already spend roughly twelve years receiving general education before college. College should focus on the profession or field the student actually chose.
History, literature, philosophy, art, languages, and other subjects can remain available as electives. The objection is forcing unrelated coursework on every student because an administrative committee thinks it knows what every individual needs.
Build degrees around competency
Programs should take as long as the profession actually requires. If the necessary education can be completed in two years, let the student finish in two. If it requires three or four, the additional time should be justified by actual professional competency, not arbitrary credit totals.
Publish program outcomes
Every program should clearly disclose expected total cost, expected completion time, average debt, graduation rate, employment in the field, typical earnings, loan repayment performance, and licensing outcomes where relevant.
End federal student loans
SNEK supports ending federal student loans. Colleges that believe in the value of their programs should be willing to finance students who need financing and share the risk when those programs consistently fail to produce meaningful employment.
Colleges need skin in the game
Institutional lending would give schools strong incentives to control tuition, remove unnecessary classes, teach useful skills, help graduates find work, and close programs with persistently poor outcomes.
Students remain responsible too
SNEK does not support blanket student-loan forgiveness. People who voluntarily borrow for education remain responsible for legitimate debts, while institutions remain responsible for what they sold.
Private student loans and bankruptcy
Private student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy under rules more like other private debt.
Public universities and community colleges
If a public university receives taxpayer funding, SNEK believes in-state tuition should be free for qualified state residents. Community colleges should be tuition-free for residents of the communities or regions they serve.
Fund trades heavily
SNEK supports major public investment in trade schools, apprenticeships, technical education, advanced manufacturing, healthcare training, and other skilled occupations that society genuinely needs.
The SNEK position
Treat students as individuals. Eliminate mandatory college general education requirements. Focus degrees on professional competency. End federal student loans. Make colleges share financial risk. Make taxpayer-funded public higher education genuinely public, and invest heavily in skilled trades.
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Why SNEK thinks this
SNEK thinks higher education has become too comfortable charging students for time and credits that are only loosely connected to the profession the student actually chose. Adults entering college should be treated as individuals with specific goals rather than forced through a one-size-fits-all general curriculum because an institution believes every student needs the same additional life education.
How it would work
Mandatory general-education requirements should be removed from college degree programs. Unrelated courses can remain available as electives. Programs should be built around the competencies the profession actually requires and should take as long as those competencies require. Schools should publish program-level cost, completion, debt, employment, earnings, and licensing outcomes. Federal student loans should end, while institutions that finance students should share meaningful downside when programs fail to produce employment. Public universities receiving taxpayer support should be tuition-free for qualified in-state students, community colleges should be tuition-free for residents they serve, and trades and apprenticeships should receive major public investment.
Where we’re flexible or still working it out
Students remain responsible for debts they voluntarily take on, and SNEK does not support blanket forgiveness. Private student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy under rules more like other private debt. Some professions genuinely require broad or lengthy education, so removing mandatory general education is not a promise that every degree becomes short. The question is whether each required course is justified by the profession rather than by tradition.
Related SNEK policies
Education Is a Right. Washington Does Not Need to Run It. • School Transparency