The rising cost of education is putting a college education out of reach for far too many students and creates a barrier for older returning students. Far too many of those who are able to attend college do so by creating a mountain of student debt. Addressing this problem is one of this nation's greatest challenges.
Over the past 10 years, more and more academic institutions have begun making static and multimedia course content available free of charge on the Internet. MIT Opencourseware, Academic Earth, Kahn Academy are all examples of what can be done to provide learning opportunities to cash strapped families.
We need a testing/certification/accreditation framework to allow students to get credit for taking these courses. I petition the Dept. of Ed to establish such a framework