Ron Paul wants to phase out federal student loans

[RI]

Paul can go f**k himself.

[RI]

Makes sense. Logically if the government didn't subsidize private college so extensively they'd be forced to cut tuition costs, or at least not increase them as drastically. Unless as a country we're willing to pay for totally public universities college for all just doesn't make much sense (hint: we're not).

Cutting student loans puts public universities in a really terrible position. They have no ability to cut tuition, nor any incentive to, as their tuition not only pays for their operations but goes into general state funding. Killing the ability, at least in the near to medium term, for anyone but the rich and scholarshipped to attend a public university dries up that revenue, forces states to cut other funding and lay off a lot of professors, the untenured and most productive kind. Private universities wouldn't be in a better position, either.

You would also see a massive amount of college students suddenly forced into the larger labor market as they simply can't afford college without federal loans (the safest kind), which would put more strain on our economy, screw the students over for life, and in the long run make America a less educated, less innovative place.

The only upside is that for-profit universities die, but it's not worth it.

[RI]

Makes sense. Logically if the government didn't subsidize private college so extensively they'd be forced to cut tuition costs, or at least not increase them as drastically. Unless as a country we're willing to pay for totally public universities college for all just doesn't make much sense (hint: we're not).

Cutting student loans puts public universities in a really terrible position. They have no ability to cut tuition, nor any incentive to, as their tuition not only pays for their operations but goes into general state funding. Killing the ability, at least in the near to medium term, for anyone but the rich and scholarshipped to attend a public university dries up that revenue, forces states to cut other funding and lay off a lot of professors, the untenured and most productive kind. Private universities wouldn't be in a better position, either.

You would also see a massive amount of college students suddenly forced into the labor market as they simply can't afford college without federal loans (the safest kind), which would put more strain on our economy, screw the students over for life, and in the long run make America a less educated, less innovative place.

The only upside is that for-profit universities die, but it's not worth it.

All universities are essentially for profit under the current system, so that's a moot point.

Anyway, why is my tuition going up for Umass by thousands of dollars while we have such excellent courses as 'ecofeminism' kept on our (hilariously awful) COIN database? How many people are already being priced out of the system now because of that? How many people are stuck servicing old loans with no hope of ever leaving thanks to consumer protection being not only wiped out but special requirements instated (by the feds)? Why have tuition increases exceeded the rate of inflation so drastically the last 20-30 years? The answer to all of those should be pretty obvious. And Paul isn't even proposing an immediate end to the system, which frankly is where we're heading anyway since this is so obviously a bubble (like so many things the government subsidizes in this country).

There are a lot of factors that have produced the increase in tuition costs besides just the availability of federal student loans. Changing cultural norms have driven up the demand for a college degree significantly, which has also produced a changing economic need for a college degree for gainful employment. Additionally, states have increasingly looked at tuition as a way to raise revenue, partly because college students vote at low rates and because there aren't any real consequences for them to do so, electorally. The availability of federal loans has perhaps exacerbated this, but it certainly didn't cause tuition to rise.

Yes, the rise in cost is a problem, and yes, there are a number of colleges out there that insist on offering BS courses, but taking a systematic swipe at college students isn't going magically cure this. If anything, some colleges might recognize that they are only now catering to the rich and to welfare/affirmative action cases and raise their tuition to compensate.

Also, there is a functional difference between a bubble and the subsidized positive externality source, but, in this case, there may be some overlap.