In today’s Pope Center article, my colleague David Koon takes a look at the trend toward decreasing state financial support and control over public universities.
I think it’s good economically and philosophically to replace money confiscated from taxpayers with money voluntarily paid for services or donated. Not everyone agrees. David’s article quotes Patrick Callan of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education as saying that the trend toward autonomy may result in public universities’ “shirking their commitments to providing access.” But “access” means college that’s heavily subsidized by taxpayers. That’s one of the main reasons why higher education has been so oversold.