We spend about twice as much as other developed countries
as a fraction of national output. Yet our results are mediocre. Public and
private spending is growing much faster than our income ? putting us on a
course that is clearly unsustainable. It appears we are buying quantity instead
of value. Outcomes vary wildly from state to state. And programs that target
the poor seem to be backfiring instead.
I could easily be talking about health care. Instead, I'm
speaking about higher education ? making some of the same points that President
Obama made the other day. Unfortunately, both fields have the same problem. The
entity paying for the service all too often tends to be different from the
person who is supposed to be benefiting.
Spending on higher education as a percent of GDP in the
United States is about twice the OECD average (3.1% versus 1.5%). Yet our results are far from the top:…..
In 1964, federal student aid was a mere $231 million. By
1981, the feds were spending $7 billion on loans alone, an amount that doubled
during the 1980s and nearly tripled in each of the following two decades, and
is about $105 billion today. Taxpayers now stand behind nearly $1 trillion in
student loans.
It appears that we are sending too many people to
college these days. (There are 115,520 janitors
in the United States with bachelor's degrees?)......To Read More….
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