The obvious response to the current crisis in higher education is to demand more financing for public colleges and universities and to create more jobs for college graduates.
However, the new austerians, such as Robert Samuelson, simply dismiss these possibilities and argue instead that fewer young people should go to college.
The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it’s now doing more harm than good. It looms as the largest mistake in educational policy since World War II, even though higher education’s expansion also ranks as one of America’s great postwar triumphs.
Apparently, that’s what they’re now teaching in Austerity 101.
