Although I appreciated much of the passion behind Mark Laffey's
post, I do think there are important questions to be raised about
the public subsidy of higher education. In one sense, I think it
is inadequate, since I would like to see higher education freely
available to anyone interested. (Whether they are pursuing job
skills or intellectual pleasures.) On the other hand, with a
_given_ budget for education spending I would find it much
more justifiable to allocate spending to children's education
and vocational education. Funds spent on higher education are
largely a subsidy of people who already have a disproportionate
share of societies resources and valued intellectual talents
(i.e., they're already richer and "smarter" than average).
It looks like a regressive redistribution of resources. So in
this era of tight budgets, I say expand the loan programs for
higher education but shift the grant and tax subsidy monies
elsewhere in the educational system.
--Alan G. Isaac
