In an effort to avoid doing actual work this morning, I was reading the usual drivel at InsideHigherEd.com when I found an article that I felt deserved a public flogging.
A fellow by the name of Aaron Broadus suggests A Simple Solution on Student Loans:
Every article I’ve read on the student loan debate seems to be missing one very crucial, simple way to completely eliminate student loan debt. It’s so painfully obvious that it flabbergasts me that no one, I mean no one, has pointed this out.
Many ideas are put forward. Lower tuition. Let students discharge their student loans in bankruptcy. Offer more Pell Grants, don't cut them. Limit the amount of aid that goes to for-profit colleges. Push for more disclosure of student loans and the cost of college.
None of those are the best solution to this problem. The real answer is simple and unpopular. It lies not with Congress, or the president, or the colleges and universities, but with the students. Students have to stop borrowing money to pay for college
Well gee -- why didn't I think of that?
Really?! You think that the solution to ending college loans is to stop borrowing to pay for college?
I think we’ve forgotten a basic rule of economics: If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it. Go to a school that you can afford.
Students have options. They can go to community college at a relatively low cost for two years, then go to a four-year school after that. They can work full-time and take online courses at cheap universities that are making education affordable and that will not accept federal financial aid, not because they are not accredited, but because they want you to graduate debt-free, at schools like New Charter University, or even tuition-free universities like University of the People. It’s not Plan A, per se, but it is doable. It’s not the freshman college experience, but it is a path to graduating debt-free.
Okay, now I feel like I'm sitting in a Dave Ramsey rally. Or even better, it's as if I'm in this sketch on Saturday Night Live.
While I do sympathize with Mr. Broadus' point here -- the crushing debt that so many students must bear is unacceptable -- the idea that students should have so many more options is simply untrue.
Look, Mr. Broadus' raises some good suggestions in his article -- but they are good for general financial advice. Not necessarily for paying for college.
If every student in America attended a school they could afford, then the cheapest (not necessarily the highest quality) institutions would be the most popular. Schools like NYU, Harvard University, or Sarah Lawrence College would have only a handful of students. Conversely, instead of having only 1550 students, Berea College in Kentucky (which charges no tuition to attend) would be the largest institution in the nation.
It's capitalism folks. Supply and demand. ECON 101.
Schools like NYU and Harvard are known to produce an extremely high-quality education. Therefore, students (and families) are willing to pay much (MUCH!) more for their sons and daughters to receive that education.
Additionally, I must admit that I rarely hear about students clamoring to get an offer of admission to University of the People or New Charter University. Just sayin'.
The bottom line is this: there is no 'one best solution' to the problem of paying for higher education.
Rather, ALL of the things that Broadus mentions apply. Lower tuition, letting students discharge their student loans in bankruptcy, offering more Pell Grants, limiting the amount of aid that goes to for-profit colleges, pushing for more disclosure of student loans and the high costs of college are all relevant. In combination with consideration of lower-cost institutions, all of these items can be helpful.
Instead of trying to offer up a metaphorical Band-Aid to fix the issues of student loan debt in one fell swoop, why not take a more practical, multi-pronged approach?
Nah. That'd make too much sense.
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