Libertarian Policy Expert Suggests Lowering the Cost of College by Slashing Aid
“the market should decide the success or failure of all higher education institutions”
If you took government out of the student loan business, the price of college would drop.
The College Fix reports:
Libertarian policy expert wants to slash aid to drive down college costs
A libertarian higher education expert proposed bold measures to improve the system, including rethinking accreditation requirements and ultimately phasing out all aid programs because they inflate tuition.
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, released a new book “Empowering the New American Worker” on Dec. 15. The book advocates pro-market solutions to economic problems, and policy analyst Neal McCluskey wrote the chapter called “Higher Education.”
McCluskey (pictured) holds a doctorate in public policy and serves as director for Cato’s Center for Academic Freedom, according to his bio.
He made the case that the United States’ current higher education policy is “counterproductive for many American workers, producing ballooning college prices, leading employers to demand credentials they don’t need, and failing to provide commensurate increases in knowledge or skills.”
‘The system forces people to get credentials for positions that probably don’t need them’
McCluskey puts some of the blame on unnecessary degrees.
“The system forces people to get credentials for positions that probably don’t need them,” he said in a telephone interview Jan. 10 with The College Fix. “If you are reasonably certain that you could go to college and study something that is in demand and finish, you should go. But we should not have a system where you need jump through hoops to get those jobs.”
He also emphasized the dangers of accreditation, entrenched in our system because the government requires it to grant student aid.
“We have to decouple federal funding for students from accreditation,” he said.
He advised that accreditation should guide students’ college choices through giving them valuable information rather than simply making some colleges financially off-limits.
While government loans are not advisable, “if [government agencies] are going to be the lenders, they should assess somebody’s ability to enroll in a program and succeed instead of giving out…loans regardless of whether they are going to succeed,” he said.
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Comments
I think the tuition would drop, and, the DIE employees would be let go, and most grievance studies departments would close up.
I agree.
Yes, that is the idea. The main reason tuitions have risen is the volume of money available. The colleges charge what they can get. Then they have to figure out what to do with all that money, so they hire all kinds of useless people.
But it won’t happen… for the same reason that Obamacare, Welfare, and Social Security will never be repealed, despite that also being a major win for precisely the same reasons. Now that it’s “entrenched,” stopping it would be “fatally disruptive.”
Once a government gimme is in place, it will never, ever, ever, ever be repealed. Why do you think Pelosi was offering politicians everything but her firstborn son to get Obamacare to pass?