Andrew Gillen of the Center for College Affordability has written a new paper entitled “Introducing Bennett Hypothesis 2.0.” In it, he argues that Bill Bennett was mostly right in contending that more generous federal student aid just enables colleges to raise tuition, but he considerably refines Bennett’s insight. The paper will make it very hard for anyone to just dismiss the connection between rising student aid and rising tuition as a strange, mistaken notion by one of Reagan’s officials.

On Minding the Campus today, Peter Wood, Rich Vedder, Hans Bader, Herbert London, and I all offer brief comments on Gillen’s paper.