Another Bad Idea

There is a move afoot to have the Federal Government take more control of our Universities. Recently one Senator from Illinois bemoaned a case of some student who attended a Community College and then went to some for profit school to study Design. Somehow in the remaining two years she amassed some $130,000 in loan debt and then could not find a job. Frankly she could have known aforehand that jibs in that field were few and far between. Furthermore she should have understood that $130,000 in loans and in that field were incompatible. So what does the Senator do? Blames the school. His solution, Federal Government controls.

What duty does the student have to make realistic decisions? The student made a bad choice, now she must live with it. Perhaps the loan should be predicated on what the student majors in. English and Fine Arts majors should not be eligible, along with History and Philosophy majors. Engineering perhaps should get the most. I will leave Finance majors for a later discussion.

Now the NY Times chimes in as follows:

The study says the federal government should set minimum performance standards for all colleges receiving federal aid: at least 17 percent enrollment of poor and working-class students; a six-year graduation rate of 15 percent; and three-year student loan default rate of no more than 28 percent. Colleges that do not meet these standards could face escalating sanctions — including the loss of federal grants and charitable interest deductions for donors. Dropout factories and diploma mills that fail to improve would face the ultimate penalty: loss of eligibility for federal aid, which would have the effect of shutting them down. The performance standards would be updated periodically as a way of steadily raising the quality of schools rated at the very bottom. The report outlines useful steps Congress can pursue should it bestir itself to listen to the president and allocate federal aid along the lines he has suggested.

This report is from Education Trust, a lobby group in DC. They published a report which they allege details the need for Government control. Their agenda appears to seek more Government control over higher education. Unfortunately as we see with the Public School system it almost always results in increased incompetence and politically correct control. One need look no further than the recent attempts in New York City to eliminate the elite schools such as High School of Science, which sent thousands of brilliant students to build our country. Now they want such high performance schools eliminated.

Imagine MIT or Harvard being controlled by some GS 10 whose former job was a VA scheduler now being responsible for over sight on MIT admissions. That could be our future.