I had never previously heard of the magazine named n+1, which someone calls “The best goddamn literary magazine in America.” The current issue contains an excellent article by Malcolm Harris, “Bad Education.” It’s well worth reading; Harris understands well the deep problems that beset our higher-ed system. Consider this quotation:

The loans and costs are caught in the kind of dangerous loop that occurs when lending becomes both profitable and seemingly risk-free: high and increasing college costs mean students need to take out more loans, more loans mean more securities lenders can package and sell, more selling means lenders can offer more loans with the capital they raise, which means colleges can continue to raise costs.

Harris also sees that much of the cost in higher education is just feather-bedding by large (and growing) numbers of highly paid administrators who have latched on to a nice gig and are squeezing all they can out of it.

Hat tip: Troy Camplin.