tuition

Listen to “Fixing the Cost of College: Make Schools Back up Loans, GOP Needs a Plan, The Enrollment Cliff” on Spreaker.

President Biden is once again touting his unconstitutional efforts to transfer the student loan debt from those who took out the loans to the taxpayers who did not. It’s not just illegal, it’s immoral. And there are much better ways to address the problem. Today, Jim and Greg examine three different areas worthy of much more attention.

First, they cheer Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for arguing that colleges and universities should back up the cost of student loans if their graduates are not able to find jobs with high enough salaries to pay them back. He says it’s not only right because the schools benefit immensely from student loans but it would also force schools to focus on subjects in which their students can find good jobs.

Next, they also welcome their friend Inez Stepman’s idea of taxing the endowments of colleges and universities, instead of allowing schools to treat them like hedge funds. Beyond that, they implore Republicans to come up with a coherent message other than opposition to what Biden is doing. Americans are furious about Biden’s shifting of this debt onto the rest of taxpayers, but without an actual plan to address the problem, Republicans are not doing taxpayers or themselves any favors.

Finally, they note the coming higher education “enrollment cliff,” as the number of high school graduates is expected to drop considerably in the next few years. Will that refocus the priorities of these universities? And how will greater interest in trade schools impact all of this?

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Listen to “Free College: ‘The Obamacare of Higher Education'” on Spreaker.

Free college. Free tuition. Student loan forgiveness. All of these ideas are being pushed by Democratic presidential candidates, but is what looks like a compassionate effort to help college students escape years or decades of crippling debt really just perpetuating a vicious government cycle?

Many candidates are advocating for free tuition at public universities and community colleges. Recently, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren put forward a plan to forgive student loan debt as an even greater appeal to young voters.

But some experts see some big problems with that.

“First of all, I want my reparations for the tuition that I paid for my kids,” said Gary Wolfram, a professor of economics and public policy at Hillsdale College in Michigan. “If you’re going to forgive everybody else’s debt, then you’ve got to forgive mine too, right?”

Wolfram says the basic economics of debt forgiveness show the idea to be absurd.

“Why would anyone give someone a loan now. If you were a business firm, why would you loan somebody money for higher education because they’re never going to pay it back. It makes no sense at all. It can’t possibly work,” said Wolfram.

But Wolfram is not just picking apart the proposals of Warren and other Democrats. He says there is a problem with the cost of higher education, but government is the cause of this vicious cycle rather than the solution to it.

“It was the government going out and lending lots of money to people without looking to see if they’re going to be able to pay it off,” said Wolfram, noting Uncle Sam does far less due diligence before handing out money than a bank will do before approving a mortgage application.

“The reason you’ve got skyrocketing tuitions, and therefore more and more loans being taken out, it’s because there’s this cycle of the government providing loans to get people to go to college. Then more people are going to college, and it’s driving up the price of college, which [results in] more loans,” explained Wolfram.

Advocates of greater federal intervention in higher education say “free” tuition will take the soaring costs out of the equation. Wolfram says it will be just the opposite. He says sending virtually every high school graduate to college on the taxpayers’ dime will lead to the government intruding even more.

“Why wouldn’t you charge $200,000 a year for tuition because the government’s paying for it? Then the government’s going to say, ‘Oh my gosh. This is incredibly expensive.’ Then they’ll say tuition’s got to be $10,000 a year.

“That won’t be enough to fund all the increase in teachers, etc, that you’re going to need to have all these kids come in. Then the government’s also going to say, ‘Gee, when we’re doing that, we’re going to tell you what has to be in higher education. Here are the classes that you have to offer.

“So you’re going to end up with the Obamacare of higher education,” said Wolfram.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Wolfram explain how the universal push for four-year colleges is leaving massive labor shortages in skilled trades and steering students away from good careers that might fit them far better than another four years in school. He also reveals his approach to making college more affordable – and it looks a lot like the recruiting of college athletes.