“Left Hand? Hello, Right Hand calling.”
I see an interesting juxtaposition between columnists at Townhall.com today. Star Parker (who, by the way, is running for Congress) says that “[a]s the economy gets increasingly sophisticated, the penalty for lack of education gets greater. But we’re failing to deliver this needed education to lower income Americans.” Meanwhile, Michael Barone is publicizing the theory that we’re riding an “education bubble” that’s apt to burst.
In case the juxtaposition isn’t clear, Star Parker’s concern for education might (I don’t know how reflective she is about the broader context) cause her to blow more hot air into the education bubble. She is “the founder and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal & Education, a 501(c)3 non-profit think tank that explores and promotes market-based public policy to fight poverty,” according to her Congressional website.
I’ll give Parker some credit. She turns from her comments about education to acknowledge the government’s deep complicity in the housing bubble through subsidized mortgages. But she doesn’t return to the topic of education, making me concerned that she might well think that what we need is cheap, subsidized education loans instead of cheap, subsidized housing loans. Barone:
Government-subsidized loans have injected money into higher education, as they did into housing, causing prices to balloon. But at some point people figure out they’re not getting their money’s worth, and the bubble bursts.
I tend to side with Charles Murray. Barone:
Charles Murray has called for the abolition of college for almost all students. Save it for genuine scholars, he says, and let others qualify for jobs by standardized national tests, as accountants already do.
The trick, of course, will be assuring that academically gifted non-caucasians don’t get sent off to shop class again on the basis of stereotypes (or even outright bigotry). We don’t have a good track record on that skill.
And just to make sure I’ve got all sides of the issue covered, I’ve got nothing against shop class. One of my favorite books of the last 2-3 years was Shop Class as Soulcraft. We are, after all, embodied creatures, who need food, shelter, motorcycle mechanics and countless other goods and services that require real craftsmanship. Ever watch an egghead try to cut and stain an extra bookshelf? (I blush at the memory.)
Here endeth my paean to Labor Day.
All of which reminds me how many unread books I have and how today is an opportunity for exercise and reading. Oh: and preparing talks I must give later this month. And … Oh well.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 
I think low-interest educational loans are a bit different than housing loans. We generally believe that securing an education increases your earning power. When you purchase a house, your current salary indicates the loan indebtedness you take on (at least if you are purchasing a home responsibly). Students traditionally lack a “current income.” Additionally, the cost of attendance at most colleges and universities has a ridiculous “inflation” rate. When I was in high school, I watched my friends who had saved diligently recoil when they realized that the cost of attendance had increased 21.9% at previously affordable state schools.
If the interest rate is not appropriate, then you never hit principal when you start making payments. 10% of $10,000 is $1,000; over four years, that is interest of over $4,500. That is not even considering the need for multiple loans over multiple years. Government loans try to help by establishing graduated ceilings across undergraduate loans to prevent people from having incredibly large loans at the get-go.
Additionally, a student cannot influence how their loan develops in the same way that an employed homeowner can. It is not as though a student can be forgiven the interest on their in-school loan period by obtaining certain marks.