6 ms·

The standard answer seems to be vouchers. Keep the free eduction, but let schools compete for students.

HarryHirsch 5y ago
We are seeing the outcomes at universities. We are getting football teams and really fancy gyms but not better education. On the contrary, if you fail students who shouldn't really be there you get in trouble with the administration. The naive free market solution does not work.
- YATA0 5y ago
  >We are getting football teams and really fancy gyms but not better education. This is an often flouted myth. Football pays for itself and then some. There's more money in education, per capita, inflation adjusted, then there ever has been ever. It's not a money problem, and it's not a sports problem.
- ryan93 5y ago
  The government gives out unlimited money for university loans. not a free market. Its okay if you arent familiar with american higher education.
  - spamizbad 5y ago
    The government doesn’t actually do this. Your eligibility for such loans is means-tested and you’re only obtaining them at a discounted rate. And they cannot be discharged during bankruptcy in most cases. It’s like saying home mortgages are free money because they’re also partially backed by the fed.
    - nate_meurer 5y ago
      It's pretty much universally accepted at this point that the flood of government student loan money has both distorted the higher education market, and created a trap for millions of people who have gotten an ineffective education with that "free" money. Your analogy to mortgages is right on, but you've drawn the wrong conclusions. Fed-backed mortgages absolutely functioned as free money. Because the risk of unqualified borrowers was assumed by the government and by opaque, byzantine, and corrupt securitization schemes, banks were incentivized to hand over money to people who weren't able to pay it back. This was, in every sense that matters, "free money". And it led directly to a financial crisis that many millions of people have never fully recovered from.
    - ryan93 5y ago
      Anyone can get a loan for any university. Even scam for profit. There is basically no limit on it.
spamizbad 5y ago
This is how the American higher education system works. The problem with this approach for public schools in the US is that there are multiple taxing authorities involved in determining how much $$$ gets attached to a student, and most of it comes from local property taxes.

We are seeing the outcomes at universities. We are getting football teams and really fancy gyms but not better education. On the contrary, if you fail students who shouldn't really be there you get in trouble with the administration. The naive free market solution does not work.

YATA0 5y ago
>We are getting football teams and really fancy gyms but not better education. This is an often flouted myth. Football pays for itself and then some. There's more money in education, per capita, inflation adjusted, then there ever has been ever. It's not a money problem, and it's not a sports problem.
ryan93 5y ago
The government gives out unlimited money for university loans. not a free market. Its okay if you arent familiar with american higher education.
- spamizbad 5y ago
  The government doesn’t actually do this. Your eligibility for such loans is means-tested and you’re only obtaining them at a discounted rate. And they cannot be discharged during bankruptcy in most cases. It’s like saying home mortgages are free money because they’re also partially backed by the fed.
  - nate_meurer 5y ago
    It's pretty much universally accepted at this point that the flood of government student loan money has both distorted the higher education market, and created a trap for millions of people who have gotten an ineffective education with that "free" money. Your analogy to mortgages is right on, but you've drawn the wrong conclusions. Fed-backed mortgages absolutely functioned as free money. Because the risk of unqualified borrowers was assumed by the government and by opaque, byzantine, and corrupt securitization schemes, banks were incentivized to hand over money to people who weren't able to pay it back. This was, in every sense that matters, "free money". And it led directly to a financial crisis that many millions of people have never fully recovered from.
  - ryan93 5y ago
    Anyone can get a loan for any university. Even scam for profit. There is basically no limit on it.

spamizbad 5y ago

This is how the American higher education system works. The problem with this approach for public schools in the US is that there are multiple taxing authorities involved in determining how much $$$ gets attached to a student, and most of it comes from local property taxes.