Biden Tuition Plan Boosts Colleges, Not Students
Richer subsidies will push up costs without improving education. There’s a smarter approach.
Gaudeamus igitur? Or caveat emptor?
Photographer: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images“Revolutionary.” That’s how Terry Hartle, senior vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education, describes President Joe Biden’s new higher education plan. “It is very different than anything we have ever tried to do before in postsecondary education,” he declared.
That’s a nice sound bite, but the president’s plan actually relies on the same dubious principles that have guided U.S. higher education policy for the better part of a century. It would boost federal subsidies intended to lower the cost of higher education for people who can’t afford it — but which have turned out to let colleges spend more money (rarely on teaching), raise tuition prices and make higher education harder for ordinary Americans to afford.