"Tricks" Aren't For Kids

Radley Balko points to the GOP's continuing attack on the free market in the form of Congressman John Boehner's plan to further protect the student loan business from competition.

Balko nails it here:

The student loan business is government ineptitude in action. In deciding that "everyone who wants to should be able to go to college," the federal government distorted the college education market. With all that "free money" available, colleges and universities could jack up tuition prices with virtually no correction. Everyone wanted to go to college. And everyone could find financing to do so. So we've had a 25-year (at least) seller's market. Which means that many of the people who likely could have afforded college on their own before all of this happened now have to take on debt. Oh, and because everyone's now getting a bachelor's degree, the degree itself is devalued. It's what a high school diploma once was. And so we've created a generation of young adults saddled with massive student loan debt (disclosure: I'm one of them).

To make matters worse, government then grants monopolies on the lending side, and puts all sorts of restrictions on refinancing. It amazes me that if a private institution wants to let me consolidate my private and public loans by paying them off, then taking me on as a client on terms more preferable to me -- a transcation that would benefit both me and the lender -- the government won't let it happen.

When I taught at the College of Southern Maryland - a two-year community college - over half the students in my college writing class were using CSM as an affordable springboard to a four-year school, as many fiscally responsible folks have been doing for years. And others were simply getting an associate's degree under their belt while they figured out what they wanted to major in. Not everyone can afford Harvard (I certainly couldn't), and not everyone belongs at Harvard (I certainly didn't). But unfortunately we've adopted the attitude throughout society that it's somehow "unfair" that certain people can acquire things other people can't - and that it's the government's responsibility to jump in and bridge the gap.

Balko is exactly right to imply that Congress simply views higher education as another entitlement, origins of which began years ago when the Carter administration created the Department of Education, which gave federal lawmakers license to butt their noses into state and local schooling. In short, if you want to go to college, it's virtually just another "right" that the state is obligated to provide.