Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney can’t catch a break.

Romney’s past couple weeks on the campaign trail showed gaffe after gaffe. Actually, his entire campaign has been that way.

From writing off 47 percent of Americans whom he calls “victims,” to having seemingly no clue why windows don’t open on airplanes, he is remaining the aloof and out-of-touch caricature that the left has accused him of being all along.

But if Romney is going to have any chance of winning the election, he is going to have to show that when it comes to younger voters, he’s got his head in the game.

He has to join the conversation on higher education because by avoiding this issue, his campaign effectively ignores a very important demographic.

Last Wednesday, Romney and President Barack Obama took a few moments from the campaign trail to talk about education in NBC News’ 2012 Education Nation Summit. But based on the interview, Romney appears to lack any novel ideas.

Obama described his efforts to expand Pell Grants for college students. Romney, in the entire span of his introductory speech and interview, which was supposed to focus on education, mentioned higher education just once.

“But one trend in higher education gives me great concern, and that’s the rapid growth in the cost of tuition, the cost of higher education. And we’re on an unsustainable path there,” he said.

No kidding.

Unfortunately, his recognition of this problem was not accompanied by any concrete solutions or visions. But remaining silent on an issue doesn’t make it go away.

Student loan debt surpassed $900 billion in the first quarter of 2012 and continues to skyrocket, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The problem of rising tuition rates is not vanishing anytime soon.

But time and again, Romney demonstrates his lack of ideas to address the problems facing higher education. More than once, the former governor has urged students to tackle this problem on their own.

“The best thing I can do for you is to tell you to shop around and compare tuition in different places,” he proposed to high school students while on the campaign trail in Ohio last March.

Romney makes it sound as though paying for college is like shopping at a grocery store. And these comments undermine the sacrifices many families make to pay for college.

On top of that, Romney and Ryan’s budget proposes reducing investment in federal loans and financial assistance, making it even more difficult for students to afford to continue their education after high school.

As the wealthy son of a politician, he has failed to prove that he understands what a middle class family must go through to put their kids through college. He doesn’t understand that by reducing investments in financial aid, he is limiting students’ access to affordable, high-quality education. But if he’s going to be taken seriously, he has to sympathize and relate to voters.

Romney’s campaign slogan is “Believe in America.” But to demonstrate his faith in this country, he has to prove that he has faith in its students.

Srividya Murthy is a freshman in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.