The Real Government War Against Higher Education...

While listening to Chicago Public Radio on the way home this afternoon, I caught an interesting story on Marketplace that many of us in the ranks of higher education should be interested in. Apparently, the Federal Government plans on saving money by cutting funding for education loan subsidies. For those keeping score, these are your federally backed student loans, and while the Feds stand to save Billions, the loan companies will no doubt pass the cost on to the consumers.

While not a big deal superficially, the reality could mean the increased cost of obtaining money for education. Anyone subject to a variable interest rate loan knows how the government tinkering with economy can mean the monthly cost of repayment jumping in exponential fashion. As it if wasn't hard enough to obtain and pay for graduate education with the continued increase in the most expensive graduate education in the world. The ultimate result of this brilliant fiscal tactic is fewer well educated Americans. Realistically, this is another attack on education. First, Congress pervert the state run education system by imposing an unconstitutional system of funding that only ends up closing schools through passing the President's "No Child Left Behind" legislation. Now, we keep people from being able to obtain baccalaureate and graduate degrees by arbitrarily interfering with the education loan system, inflating the cost of higher education on the back end. So, thank Congress for passing laws that take away education from the younger students and make it more difficult for adults to receive advanced degrees. We could call it legislation to guarantee an under-educated American public.

The most absurd thing about this remains that the new immigration bill everyone keeps talking about will make it easier for immigrants with higher educations come into the country.

Wait, hold on, lets think about that one for a second. Congress passes a law that will effectively prevent Americans from obtaining advanced degrees. At the same time, Congress debates legislation (the value of which I will assess in a forthcoming post) that will permit more immigrants with advanced degrees into the country.

This sounds more like the government waging a war on the American citizen by preventing us from pursuing the ultimate goals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence; Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Consider, for a moment, the real impetus for some of this new legislation, then call and chastise your congressional representatives for their malfeasance.