I see to dimensions to Brad's question. Is higher education late sorting
mechanism or does it add to social productivity? If free higher education would
offer a wage premium to workers and if it added to social productivity, wouldn't
it makes sense to promote education and then to tax the returns?
Brad DeLong wrote:
> >I had three markers in my Ph.D. experience that pretty completely knocked me
> >off any desire to be an academic. The first was during the budget cuts in
> >higher education during the early 90s. As tuition doubled and services and
> >funding was cut, the tenured faculty at the University of California sat
> >back and did almost nothing, since their perks were not on the line. Their
> >apathy and indifference to the narrowing of opportunity...
>
> I believe *very* strongly that in a good society education--as much
> education as people want--should be free. But free higher education
> is not an equality-promoting measure. I cannot look at the doubling
> of in-state undergraduate tuition and fees for U.C. Berkeley to its
> current $4200 a year as a very bad thing. The average college-high
> school wage premium these days is $7.50 an hour, after all. Public
> subsidies for higher education are regressive.
>
> I think that the public should subsidize higher education: I think
> the social benefits from mass secondary and mass higher education are
> enormous.
>
> But don't imagine that you are fighting for equality or for social
> justice when you demand that in-state fees for Berkeley undergrads be
> cut and that a little bit more of the wages of the guy at the 7-11 go
> to fund the Berkeley undergrad's education.
>
> The sickest--absolutely the sickest--meeting ever was when then
> Berkeley Provost Carol Christ opined that Berkeley had an obligation
> to keep the in-state tuition of students at all its professional
> schools, including its Business and Law Schools, very low.
> Income-contingent loans, yes. But a straight $15,000 a year subsidy
> for students at Haas and Boalt?
>
> Brad DeLong
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901
