College Cashout

No more free ride:

For decades, American institutions of higher education have benefited from extraordinary taxpayer largesse. Federal government grants and other forms of direct taxpayer subsidizations of universities are legion. The federal government itself also has a near-monopoly on the market for economically ruinous student loans -- the very loans that are themselves disproportionately responsible for abetting the modern four-year college's misbegotten status as a necessary rite of passage to achieve the American dream. Capital gains of major university endowments are also taxed at the miniscule rate of 1.4% -- a fraction of the taxation rate to which the endowments would be subject were they operating as any other type of business or investment fund. This favorable governmental treatment of higher education is the backend "quo." But policymakers predicated that "quo," long ago, on the corresponding "quid": American universities, in educating young Americans and instilling in them a love of their families, congregations, nation and God Almighty, conduce to the common good and therefore deserve direct public support. The basic problem with this argument, in the year 2025, is that -- quite simply -- it is indescribably and laughably out of touch with reality.

Time for higher education to literally pay for itself...