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This week in #FreeCollegeQuestions -- a more specific version of last week's question, “Nothing is free, someone is paying.” Today, “Why should I pay for other people’s children to go to college?” (We’ll leave aside for now the question of free college for adults.) (1/11)
Degrees and credentials these days are generally thought of as private goods – the person earning them reaps their benefit, so that person (or that person’s family) should bear the cost. This was not always the case. (2/11)
For much of the past century, public colleges and universities in the US were affordable and sometimes even tuition free (as in the case of California until around 1980). Prices were kept low through state support for the higher ed sector. (3/11)
2021 will bring a free-college proposal in Congress and publication of my book, “The Path to Free College.” In honor of both events, I’m launching #FreeCollegeQuestions, a series of weekly posts to explore questions average Americans may have about free college.
First up in #FreeCollegeQuestions, “If college is free will people value it less?” Richard DeVos (Betsy’s father, who died in 2018) made this argument about the Kalamazoo Promise back in 2006, telling the Grand Rapids Economic Club "If it's free, it's not worth much."
I’ve always suspected DeVos’s problem was with @KzooPromise emphasis on public schools and universal access rather than the philanthropic gesture itself. (His family, after all, is one of the nation’s largest givers, with over a billion dollars in lifetime philanthropy.)
