Is It Time to Minus PLUS?

Neal McCluskeyFederal student loans are having a moment, and not a good one. With the COVID-19 repayment pausedue to end in October, House Speaker Nancy Pelosiopposing massive loan forgiveness, andtwoWall Street Journalarticles shining spotlights on how federal programs enable staggering tuition inflation, much attention is being paid to the crippling unintended consequences of federal higher ed “help.”But what to do about it?As I have arguedfor years, the right thing to do is phase out all federal aid programs, starting with those least focused on the poor and basically working our way down. Of course, that is currently a political nonstarter – too many colleges rely on easy money through students, and too many current and prospective students see the price of college and think, “How could I pay without aid? ”The answer, for the most part, is you couldn ’t: the aid is baked into the price. But if we want pricing—and spending—sanity, we have to start removing the federalgreat inflator.As Diego Zuluaga and I argued in this op ‐​ed, and several co ‐​authors and I offered in thisblueprint to start shrinking the federal government ’s education presence down to constitutional size, the right place to start is PLUS loans. These are loans that graduate students and parents can take outfor any amount up to the cost of attendance, whichrevenue ‐​loving schools set. They are a big part of one of theWSJ stories ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs