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Wlaf1450BY BRANDON JOHNSON
CAMPBELL COUNTY, TN (SPECIAL TO WLAF)- Every generation faces defining challenges.
Our grandparents rebuilt after World War II. Our parents navigated recessions, globalization, and the rise of the internet. I believe one of the defining economic challenges facing my generation – millennials – will be student debt.
I’m a conservative, and us right-of-center folks have spent years debating whether student loans should be forgiven after they’ve already been borrowed. I believe we’re asking the wrong question.
Instead, we should be asking: How do we keep students from accumulating unnecessary debt in the first place?
That’s why I was encouraged to learn about an innovative new direction in higher education that many Tennesseans may not have heard about.
The University of Tennessee System has approved the development of three-year bachelor’s degree programs requiring just 90 credit hours instead of the traditional 120. Students will still be able to pursue a traditional four year degree if they choose, but they’ll also have another pathway – one that could allow them to graduate sooner, reduce the amount they borrow by roughly 25 percent, and begin building their careers a year earlier.
I want to commend state leaders like Tre Hargett, Tennessee’s Secretary of State, for helping lead this conversation and University of Tennessee System President Randy Boyd for having the vision to move it from an idea to reality. Both deserve credit for challenging assumptions that have gone unquestioned for generations.
As someone who has spent years in higher education, I appreciate the value of a college education. I earned two bachelor’s degrees from East Tennessee State University, one in Marketing and one in Management, before completing my Master of Business Administration (MBA).
I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything.
At the same time, I can honestly say that not every required course directly contributed to preparing me for my career. One elective I took focused on mythology. I genuinely enjoyed the class, but it wasn’t directly connected to the business career I ultimately pursued. The same could be said for several other electives I completed simply because they were required to reach a certain number of credit hours.
Those weren’t bad classes. They simply weren’t essential to the profession or degree I had chosen.
That’s what makes this proposal so compelling.
The goal isn’t to lower standards or make earning a degree easier. It’s to create a more focused curriculum that emphasizes the knowledge and skills students need in their chosen profession while giving them the flexibility to enter the workforce sooner and with less debt.
As a local business owner, I see workforce shortages every day. Employers across Tennessee need qualified people ready to contribute. We need graduates who can solve problems, communicate effectively, and succeed in their chosen fields.
As a member of the Campbell County School Board, I’ve also had countless conversations with students who want to continue their education but worry about whether they can afford it. Too many feel like they have to choose between pursuing their dreams and taking on years or even decades of debt.
We should be working to remove those barriers, not accepting them as inevitable.
Today, Americans owe nearly $1.8 trillion in student loan debt, with more than 42 million people carrying federal student loans. Those numbers should concern all of us – not because they justify asking taxpayers to erase those debts, but because they demonstrate the need to prevent unnecessary debt from being created in the first place.
As conservatives, we rightly believe in personal responsibility and fiscal discipline. We have opposed broad student loan forgiveness because it shifts the burden to taxpayers, including millions who never attended college or who worked hard to pay off their own loans.
But saying “no” to loan forgiveness shouldn’t mean saying “no” to reform.
This is exactly the kind of conservative solution we should embrace.
Instead of creating another government program to deal with debt after the fact, let’s give students the opportunity to borrow less from the very beginning.
Traditional four year bachelor’s degrees should absolutely remain available. Many careers require them, and many students will continue to choose that path. This proposal doesn’t replace those degrees. It simply creates another option for students whose goals are better served by a focused, career oriented education.
Secretary Hargett has suggested calling these programs “Focused Bachelor’s Degrees,” and I think that’s exactly the right approach. A degree centered on mastering a student’s chosen field shouldn’t be viewed as a lesser credential simply because it eliminates coursework that may not directly contribute to career readiness.
For more than a century, we’ve measured higher education by credit hours. Maybe it’s time we start measuring it by outcomes instead.
If Tennessee can produce graduates who are well prepared, workforce ready, carrying less debt, and entering their careers sooner, we’ve done more than modernize higher education – we’ve invested in the future of an entire generation.
After all…the best student loan is the one a young person never has to take out in the first place. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-07/08/2026-6AM)
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