As student loan debt continues to soar, a recent Makinac Center for Public Policy blog post suggests that runaway tuition costs could be contained by better managed government aid.
Makinac Center for Public Policy Director of Marketing and Communications Jarrett Skorup writes that more government spending on universities is not the answer and that “there is no correlation between a state’s spending on colleges and its number of graduates.”
Among the solutions Skorup proposes: “State and federal governments should pull back their loans and appropriations, or at least target them more directly at needy students who stand a good chance to graduate. Colleges should have to compete over students and dollars; governments can encourage this by tying money to students rather than making blanket appropriations to universities.”
He adds that families and students need to pay attention to what they’re signing up for.
“The idea of every person needing a four- to six-year bachelor’s degree for success in life should be de-emphasized," Skorup writes. "It’s training and skills that lead to jobs, which lead to more skills, which leads to better jobs. And there are lots of ways to obtain that – college is one, but not for everyone.”
Alerts Sign-up