Introduction

First, some questions: 1. What is higher education? and 2. How should we fund it? President-elect Biden wants to make community college free to the students. In essence, he wants to take the free and currently failing public school K-12 program and make it a failing public school K-14 program. And he wants to make a piece of it retroactive.

That is the subject of today’s 10-minute episode. 

Continuing

Let’s start today’s conversation with the two main purposes of education: 1. Developing a broad base of knowledge in facts, history, economics and politics, arts and languages, philosophy, etc. And add in the training in logic and thinking skills needed to put that knowledge to use in productive and creative ways. This learning should be akin to a multiple course meal, with a wonderful variety of tastes and experiences. With occasional purely fun education “beverages” to wash it all down with to add to the enjoyment. One of the keys here is to train students how to think, not what to think. 2. Votech. Yes, let’s honor vocational schools, e.g. welding school, dental and medical school, and various MBA factories. My path included an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and an MBA from Harvard–my choice for a vocational school. We all need both; a broad based education and a way of making money. Together, they are the warp and woof of education. 

Too many people think of post high school education as only votech, as a stepping stone to making money, which is why they choose majors like business or marketing. They often wind up without the needed broader education, and without the required specific learning to be attractive to employers looking for real business skills.

Others do not think about either a broad based education or vocational skills, which is why they choose majors like sociology. And the sociology graduates waiting tables are among the loudest voices saying they were “ripped off” because they cannot pay their $40k in student loans, and want someone else to meet their obligations for them. 

Enter President-elect Joe Biden. He wants “free” community college for all. Two quick points here: 1. Nothing is free; someone pays for everything and 2. This is just the camel’s nose under the tent. If this gets passed, the immediate next move will be to make all public colleges free. And so on. In essence, Mr. Biden wants to build on the public school model by adding two years to the existing free K-12 program. But that program is failing, needing to be propped up by denying as many new requests for charter schools as possible, and all but refusing access to vouchers. Instead of a failing K-12 system, we’d have a failing K-14 system. 

Additionally, the President-elect is calling for student loan forgiveness, starting with a $10K freebie. And this is where the retroactive part starts; Mr Biden wants to make free college retroactive by forgiving debt, by asking others to pay the loans. And that is a second camel’s nose under the tent. The ultimate goals are clear–free college for all, and forgiveness of all student loans. All $1.5 trillion in student loans. Instead of shifting the loan burden from those who agreed to pay by signing the loans to others who had nothing to do with incurring that debt, let’s fix the problem by:

Reconnecting the provider of the service with the buyer. The colleges are not currently responsible if the student borrower defaults; the college gets to keep the money regardless. Putting the institution offering the learning on the hook if the borrower does not pay would make them dramatically more responsible with both offering loans and the income producing education they promise. It would also lower the cost of higher education dramatically by drying up a large portion of the guaranteed borrowed cash the colleges and universities rely on to add massive expenses, mostly in non-academic areas. 

Asking students to take an...