https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/03/right-needs-revolutionary-higher-ed-reform-plan-now/
"By the universities’ own measures, this [binge of money and increase of administrators] has produced splendid results. Students are more than twice as likely to receive ‘A’ grades now than in 1960. When outsiders do the grading, however, they are less impressed: One study found that 36% of students ‘did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning’ over four years of college."
"Worse, the left loves the current system of higher ed subsidization — not because of the economic benefits, which are increasingly hard to justify across the board, but because the American college experience is an ideological indoctrination factory."
"Students at the University of Minnesota receive books to read that include “Capitalism’s War on the Earth,” but nobody teaches them that the worst environmental degradation ever seen has occurred in communist, centrally planned economies such as the Soviet Union and (now) China."
"At my alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, a history professor spent an entire class attempting to prove Americans weren’t really on the side of justice and right in World War II. I told the professor that your average plumber, carpenter, or factory worker was now far smarter than the class — most of whom went on to be K-12 teachers. And I was right."
A Revolutionary Higher Ed Plan
Require every college that receives subsidized student loans to disclose the average income earned by graduates in each major, at least three years after graduating, and the percentage of graduates in that major who work in a field related to that major. The “personal responsibility” crowd says if you took out substantial student loans, its your own fault. But 18-year-olds shouldn’t be trusted with much, let alone picking a school and a major, while understanding the real cost of the loans they are taking out and their employment prospects after — when everyone is telling them to go to college.
Higher ed lobbyists have long resisted efforts to make colleges report their students’ earnings. For example, the Obama administration had a meager plan to provide transparency, then shelved it after facing higher ed industrial complex pressure. Pushing for absolute major-by-major transparency should be a priority of the Trump administration. Set up a website to house the data: HigherEdReturn.gov.
Congress should pass a tax exemption for employer contributions, up to $2,000 per year, into a 401(k)-type investment vehicle that allows for money eventually to be withdrawn at the long-term capital gains rate, in order to pay down student loan principal balances. Investment options should be limited to a well-diversified portfolio, and companies should bid to provide the lowest management fees. The proposal would be politically popular, and it would probably save the federal government money in the long run, if more people pay more of their student loans.
Congress should make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy proceedings. Currently, student loans are just about the only type of debt that is extremely hard to discharge in bankruptcy. Congress changed the law to favor lenders in a sop to the higher ed industrial complex, and it should reverse that change. Going forward, this change would force lenders of student loans, private and government, to be more careful about who they lend to, and saddle fewer Americans in endless debt.
Require colleges to take an equity stake in their students. Automatic wage garnishment by the government to pay for its irresponsible student debt lending is a bad idea. But requiring colleges to have skin in the game is a great idea. Here, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has some good ideas, as does current Purdue University President and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
For example, colleges could be required to receive 10-20 percent of tuition as a future payment of a small percentage of their students’ income for 10 years after graduation. If their students’ majors and education helped them make a lot of money, the colleges would get paid. If the students made little money, colleges wouldn’t get paid. The result would be an incentive for colleges to align their degrees with the labor market, and a marked decline in worthless “social justice” degrees.
Focus more on technical schools and apprenticeships, and focus less on the four-year college degree. There are no easy answers here, and history shows it is a bad idea simply to throw money at something without thinking it through. Germany’s apprenticeships are world-beating, but Britain tried to replicate that with little luck. But, generally, America needs more kids in technical school and apprenticeships, and fewer kids in four-year colleges.
Cut federal funding for schools that don’t protect the free-speech rights of students, faculty, and visitors.
Higher ed in America is a debt bomb that has enslaved the young. But on the other side of the transaction, it is the peak of cronyism and excess for the thousands of bureaucrats and professors who benefit off this system.
The system is rotten to its core — economically, ideologically, and spiritually. Trump and every Republican after him should run on metaphorically blowing it up, and the listed proposals are the least a great disruptor would pursue.
"By the universities’ own measures, this [binge of money and increase of administrators] has produced splendid results. Students are more than twice as likely to receive ‘A’ grades now than in 1960. When outsiders do the grading, however, they are less impressed: One study found that 36% of students ‘did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning’ over four years of college."
"Worse, the left loves the current system of higher ed subsidization — not because of the economic benefits, which are increasingly hard to justify across the board, but because the American college experience is an ideological indoctrination factory."
"Students at the University of Minnesota receive books to read that include “Capitalism’s War on the Earth,” but nobody teaches them that the worst environmental degradation ever seen has occurred in communist, centrally planned economies such as the Soviet Union and (now) China."
"At my alma mater, Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, a history professor spent an entire class attempting to prove Americans weren’t really on the side of justice and right in World War II. I told the professor that your average plumber, carpenter, or factory worker was now far smarter than the class — most of whom went on to be K-12 teachers. And I was right."
A Revolutionary Higher Ed Plan
Require every college that receives subsidized student loans to disclose the average income earned by graduates in each major, at least three years after graduating, and the percentage of graduates in that major who work in a field related to that major. The “personal responsibility” crowd says if you took out substantial student loans, its your own fault. But 18-year-olds shouldn’t be trusted with much, let alone picking a school and a major, while understanding the real cost of the loans they are taking out and their employment prospects after — when everyone is telling them to go to college.
Higher ed lobbyists have long resisted efforts to make colleges report their students’ earnings. For example, the Obama administration had a meager plan to provide transparency, then shelved it after facing higher ed industrial complex pressure. Pushing for absolute major-by-major transparency should be a priority of the Trump administration. Set up a website to house the data: HigherEdReturn.gov.
Congress should pass a tax exemption for employer contributions, up to $2,000 per year, into a 401(k)-type investment vehicle that allows for money eventually to be withdrawn at the long-term capital gains rate, in order to pay down student loan principal balances. Investment options should be limited to a well-diversified portfolio, and companies should bid to provide the lowest management fees. The proposal would be politically popular, and it would probably save the federal government money in the long run, if more people pay more of their student loans.
Congress should make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy proceedings. Currently, student loans are just about the only type of debt that is extremely hard to discharge in bankruptcy. Congress changed the law to favor lenders in a sop to the higher ed industrial complex, and it should reverse that change. Going forward, this change would force lenders of student loans, private and government, to be more careful about who they lend to, and saddle fewer Americans in endless debt.
Require colleges to take an equity stake in their students. Automatic wage garnishment by the government to pay for its irresponsible student debt lending is a bad idea. But requiring colleges to have skin in the game is a great idea. Here, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has some good ideas, as does current Purdue University President and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
For example, colleges could be required to receive 10-20 percent of tuition as a future payment of a small percentage of their students’ income for 10 years after graduation. If their students’ majors and education helped them make a lot of money, the colleges would get paid. If the students made little money, colleges wouldn’t get paid. The result would be an incentive for colleges to align their degrees with the labor market, and a marked decline in worthless “social justice” degrees.
Focus more on technical schools and apprenticeships, and focus less on the four-year college degree. There are no easy answers here, and history shows it is a bad idea simply to throw money at something without thinking it through. Germany’s apprenticeships are world-beating, but Britain tried to replicate that with little luck. But, generally, America needs more kids in technical school and apprenticeships, and fewer kids in four-year colleges.
Cut federal funding for schools that don’t protect the free-speech rights of students, faculty, and visitors.
Higher ed in America is a debt bomb that has enslaved the young. But on the other side of the transaction, it is the peak of cronyism and excess for the thousands of bureaucrats and professors who benefit off this system.
The system is rotten to its core — economically, ideologically, and spiritually. Trump and every Republican after him should run on metaphorically blowing it up, and the listed proposals are the least a great disruptor would pursue.
