While college education has never been more important, it has also never been more expensive, US President Obama noted in his weekly address on August 25.

“At a moment when a higher education has never been more important, it’s also never been more expensive,” Obama said.

“That’s why, over the past four years, we’ve helped make college more affordable for millions of students and families with grants and loans that go farther from before.”

The president spent most of his speech talking about major new reforms aimed to “make college more affordable and make it easier for folks to pay for their education.”

An average student now graduates more than $26,000 in debt, and “students and families and taxpayers cannot just keep subsidizing college costs that keep going up and up,” he pressed.

The plan would tie federal financial aid to the value and opportunity that colleges provide students, encourage innovation and competition, and help Americans manage their existing student debt by allowing everyone to cap monthly payments at 10 percent of their discretionary income, he said.

The President acknowledged that these reforms won’t be popular with everyone – especially those who benefit from the status quo – but pressed the path he and the US are on is “unsustainable for our students and our economy.”

In concluding the speech, Obama said: “Higher education shouldn’t be a luxury, or a roll of the dice.

“It’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.”