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Absolutely, says Marco Rubio, a US Florida Senator. He emphatically stresses on the immediate need to restructure the fundamentally broken and outdated higher education system in our country as this is the only way to move forward.

According to Rubio, a lot of Americans are unable to access the current higher education in our country especially due to the high cost and enhanced time frame. He said that President Obama’s ideas do not address the root issues in the current system. He pointed out that the same outdated model persists over which more taxpayer money is being spent.

Rubio said that today higher education is an imperative for every single American as compared to a century ago when it was just an option for most. This is due to the fast emerging technology and transforming economic landscape.

He said that advanced skills are required for many current and future high paying jobs and that most of the low skilled jobs are already replaced by technology. The aim should be to help each and every American access higher education as this is the only way to power our country to the top in the 21st century.

Rubio pointed out that there is no real necessity for everyone to spend a fortune studying at the campus when they can leverage the technological advancement to access knowledge. Today, he said, there are myriad ways to share knowledge and it is time our country moved forward to embrace this.

If elected President, Rubio said that he would focus on total overhaul of our higher education system rather than just covering the high tuition rates and other symptomatic issues. He said that the focus would be on the way degrees are provided by institutions and accessed by students at affordable costs.

Rubio said his efforts would focus on accreditation system reformation making the system focus on providing innovative higher education and low cost. He said that presently, accreditation is controlled by existing institutions that do not welcome such reforms.

Market forces of competition and choices must control the higher education transformation and this is possible only through enhanced exposure. The major driving force here should be the student’s needs that are possible only by forcing colleges and universities to lower costs in order to remain competitive.

Rubio said his vision is to provide students high quality education and degree at affordable rates from quality institutions. Students will be helped to make informed decisions. Rubio said that schools will be made to provide realistic data on how much students can earn after completing a particular degree. This, he said would help them decide on whether they want to take out a loan or not.

He also said it is important to focus on widespread vocational and career education and make it possible for working students to attend school at night and weekends. They will even be encouraged to take online classes.

All these measures if combined with brand new student loan alternatives is the way to go if we want to bring our higher education system on track, Rubio said. When put this way, it is pretty obvious that our higher education system does need a complete overhaul.