4 ms·

I agree with you. Of course everyone in higher education would be against it. It would force universities to consider a student's likelihood of repayment, and

by parsimo2010 5y ago

I agree with you. Of course everyone in higher education would be against it. It would force universities to consider a student's likelihood of repayment, and in doing so it would ruin their enrollment and cost them a bunch of money. Every school would probably have to halve their faculty if they didn't have a federally guaranteed honeypot. It would completely upend the current state of affairs. Imagine how many kids go to University of Alabama strictly because of the football team. Imagine how much enrollment would drop if most of those students couldn't get any more loans because they weren't likely to repay them without federal protections (either going to a different school that provided a better value or exiting higher education completely). Now imagine this going on in some form or other at literally every college/university in America. With all that said about how drastic it would be, I agree with GP that it is the only real solution, and everything else is either temporary or addresses a symptom instead of the cause.

etempleton 5y ago
I agree that federal funding, first issued several decades ago, has since not kept up with inflation and l has led to the current state of things. Prospective students, their families, and the schools all responded rationally and predictably. Funding either needs to remain consistent with inflation or slowly phased out. Good schools do worry about repayment of applicants, but not all schools are good or in a financial position to worry about that. What most schools are trying to do right now is rapidly expand their endowments with the hope to be able to consistently and sustainably offer tuition discounts and aid to students. The schools with the largest endowments are already essentially free if your family makes below a certain threshold, however this is only a handful of elite schools. For most schools they have what is called a “discount rate.” That is, the rate of students that receive a discount on the sticker price of tuition. These days most families receive a discount to most schools, which is a pretty dramatic from even 10 years ago when most students paid the full tuition price.

etempleton 5y ago

I agree that federal funding, first issued several decades ago, has since not kept up with inflation and l has led to the current state of things. Prospective students, their families, and the schools all responded rationally and predictably. Funding either needs to remain consistent with inflation or slowly phased out. Good schools do worry about repayment of applicants, but not all schools are good or in a financial position to worry about that. What most schools are trying to do right now is rapidly expand their endowments with the hope to be able to consistently and sustainably offer tuition discounts and aid to students. The schools with the largest endowments are already essentially free if your family makes below a certain threshold, however this is only a handful of elite schools. For most schools they have what is called a “discount rate.” That is, the rate of students that receive a discount on the sticker price of tuition. These days most families receive a discount to most schools, which is a pretty dramatic from even 10 years ago when most students paid the full tuition price.