There’s more to the college affordability crisis than the mere fact of debt. “You know, 80% of people with student debt say it causes them to delay things like getting married, buying a house, having kids,” says Aaron Kuecker, president of Trinity Christian College. “Two-thirds of folks who have a high level of student loan debt are actively looking for their next job, and that hurts our employers, and that hurts neighborhood stability.”

Kuecker’s one of a host of people who are working on the problem, and Trinity and the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program recently convened 27 leaders from higher education, business, civic and nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy to reimagine how we finance higher education in the US. 

Another of those leaders is Pete Kadens, founder of Hope Chicago and an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow. “All of us have relied on government and the students and families themselves to incur debt to fund education,” says Kadens. “It's a little foreign to say, well, corporate America should be funding education…but corporate America needs to look themselves in the eyes and understand that their bread is buttered by hiring great young talent.”

“We have all the pieces of a puzzle,” says Kuecker, “It's just lining up the ways that those self-interests are actually mutual interests, like for employers to be able to hire debt-free students, for colleges to be able to develop an economic model that is actually more sustainable in the long term, and for students to have clear pathways to employment. There's such obvious mutual benefit.”

We asked Kadens and Kuecker to ask each other some questions in a virtual conversation, and they delivered a video that defies transcription. Access this resource to learn more and to watch the entire, inspiring discussion.