Financial analyst Michael Falk offers Barron’s readers ideas for changing the way people pay for higher education.

It’s easy to imagine free college for everyone. But we have to stop dreaming. The cost would be too high. Not all students are a good fit for college, and opening a free-for-all would run a real risk of wasting resources.

On the other hand, appropriately educated and skilled individuals tend to earn more and pay more taxes. They also typically avoid the need for social safety nets or costs incurred in the courts and prison systems.

Let’s rethink how we might enable greater-than-average success rates for college students. It could begin by better aligning the interests of the student borrowers and their lenders when borrowing is needed. Higher-education vouchers, properly allocated and regulated, could make fiscal sense.

Free tuition could be appropriate for U.S. citizens on educational paths that address employment shortages in important fields, such as nursing, or for those seeking degrees in some areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM. …

… Degrees in areas other than those with high demand and high rewards could be eligible for voucher support, but those vouchers should cover only a percentage of the tuition. The goal is not to limit educational variety but rather to make greater investments in future productivity.

Other students will need different forms of education, the modern equivalents of trade schools. Not everyone should go to college, but everyone can benefit from acquiring specific, vocational skills. Driverless cars may not need drivers, but they will need educated mechanics. And more-traditional skills, such as plumbing, aren’t likely to go out of style or be supplied by robots.

For those who simply can’t stomach the idea of free education funded by government, here is another idea.

IF COLLEGES PROVIDE VALUE, then let’s make them warranty their offerings. Make the colleges be the lenders—responsible for the loans they approve. Goodbye to Uncle Sam, his tuition-inflation program, and his support for colleges that don’t offer value.