Collegiate concerns

Most Americans understand our university system has some problems, but how bad is it really? Anyone interested in sorting through some of academia’s dirty laundry might want to pick up Higher Education in America: It’s Worse Than You Think (Encounter Books, 308 pp.), edited by Kevin D. Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. In this series of essays, with an introduction and conclusion by conservative activist Christopher Rufo, a score of academics and analysts attempts to diagnose what ails America’s colleges.

The first group of essays tackles higher education’s affordability crisis—the most urgent problem confronting families trying to figure out how to pay for their children’s degrees. Decades ago, as the cost of attendance began creeping up, the federal government responded by making it easier for students to borrow money. The unintended consequence of this easy money was to incentivize the further ballooning of costs at colleges and universities. Another problem involves transparency. Almost no one pays the posted tuition, but under the guise of “financial aid” packages, colleges offer discounts that vary from student to student. Families often don’t know how much it will cost until late in the process, and it’s impossible to know if they’re getting a good deal since no one knows how much other students received in discounts. This lack of price transparency allows colleges to warp the market and squeeze additional revenue out of students.

The actual amount of money schools spend on instruction hasn’t risen at the same rate as the cost of attendance, and the second group of essays critiques bureaucratic bloat. Much of that bloat aims to spend tuition dollars on left-wing causes, which is the subject of the third group of essays. Recent attacks on Jewish students and the problems with DEI initiatives come up repeatedly.

But how do we fix the problems of affordability, bureaucratic bloat, and the left’s stranglehold on higher ed? The authors offer a variety of suggestions. Some think study centers within existing institutions can bring reforms; others think conservatives need to abandon the old system and create new colleges and universities. But part of the solution involves remembering the purpose of college. We might make some progress if we stop thinking about college as job training and the acquisition of knowledge and, as Rufo says, start thinking about it as a place to “form free and responsible citizens.”