Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Best Way to Fix Financial Aid? Make Colleges Accountable

My new TheAtlantic.com column is titled, The Best Way to Fix Student Aid: Make the Colleges Earn It.

It argues that to receive taxpayer-funded financial aid, colleges should be required to show at least minimal value-added in learning and employability. After all, the government won't allow even a drug to market without proven efficacy.

The government has given higher education a free pass and mammoth access to our tax dollars while requiring less accountability than we do for a tire. That must screech to a halt.

HERE is the link to the column.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see colleges over encouraging graduate school to get past requirement 2.

Huge student loan owner said...

What do you think about the movement to have student loans forgiven?

I have a large (and growing larger my the day) student loan that I took on for my my Master's at SF State. I have a feeling that this will follow me to my grave.

I completed my Master's in just enough time to see the bulk of my work get outsourced!

I can't be the only one out there that has experienced this. I think of how much money medical students have to take out just to get through pre-med, let alone finishing med school.

Of course I don't think this has a snowball's chance in hell of passing given the hostile climate of our current government. I was just curious to know your thoughts on the subject.

Marty Nemko said...

Universities are so often so hiding of critical consumer information, for example, about costs, graduation rate, and employment rates. That leaves students to make a purchase of great cost and time, and then when they can't land a decent job, the university should bear some responsibility for their lack of disclosure. Indeed, before I embraced homeowners insisting on modified mortgages, I'd embrace a national insistence on modifying student loans.

 

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