The Wall Street Journal reports that the new Democratic leadership in Congress looks poised to make it lots cheaper and easier for students to borrow money to attend college, and Republicans seem likely to back this and other (what an observer calls) “apple pie” measures to make college affordable.
Richard Vedder comments that these proposals will only encourage colleges to raise tuition further, because cheaper borrowing “tends to push prices up.” True, but what’s also insidious in this drive to throw more money at higher education is the absence of proposals for incentives by which to induce campuses to strengthen academic performance.
With Democrats throwing more pie at higher education, the public can expect even less quality control and financial discipline on campuses than now exist.