A group of hedge fund economists released a report in which they offered a list of tough solutions to alleviate Puerto Rico’s current economic problems and the U.S. territory's $72 billion debt.

In June, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla, said “The debt is not payable.” He cautioned Puerto Rico’s creditors, if they wanted any return at all, that they are faced with sharing the same sacrifices as the island’s residents. As quoted in the New York Times, García Padilla seemed to see no alternative to having the creditors accept a compromise, saying, “What will happen is that our economy will get into a worse situation and we’ll have less money to pay them. They will be shooting themselves in the foot.”

The economists see a definite alternative plan, calling for Puerto Rico to start collecting more taxes while at the same time selling off $4 billion-worth of public property. The report also suggested that people of Puerto Rico could help themselves by cutting public spending on education.

Jose Fajgenbaum, one of the three former International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists who wrote the report, spoke to the Guardian about Puerto Rico’s overspending on education. According to the IMF economist, school spending had increased by 39 percent to $4.8 billion over the last decade. As this increase occurred, the actual numbers of students attending had fallen from over 765,000 down to 573,000.

Fajgenbaum explained, “The real expense per student has increased enormously without increasing the quality of education. It’s for the government to decide [how much to cut spending by], but you don’t want to waste government resources. There has to be efficiencies. It is more important to establish a position for growth.”

Due to the conditions Puerto Rico seems to already be suffering, taking the economist’s advice might be unfeasible. According to Víctor Suárez, the chief of staff to García Padilla, “The simple fact remains that extreme austerity [alone] is not a viable solution for an economy already on its knees.”