Oh, pity the poor students who have to pay back the money they borrowed — we must make things easier for them! That sums up the thinking in the education establishment and its leftist allies. The most recent idea for treating students more gently is to roll student loan payments into the payroll tax withholding system. The New America Foundation has advanced that proposal, but in this SeeThruEdu post, Lindsey Burke argues against it.

Among her reasons for opposing the plan is that it “would remove the student almost entirely from the management of his loans, in favor of the federal government handling the entire process.” That is, it’s another step away from the America where individuals were responsible for their decisions and their consequences and toward the ever-growing Nanny State America where faceless bureaucrats take care of you. This fits right in with “Life of Julia.”

Just as tax withholding helps to obscure the burden of the income tax, withholding to cover student loan payments would obscure that cost. It would be a step in the wrong direction.