Unprofitable Schooling: America’s Broken Ivory Tower

Description

Dissatisfaction with higher education in the United States is ubiquitous. College costs continue to rise and student debt loads are becoming increasingly unsustainable, while criticisms of the quality of university education mount. Policymakers' responses have been both predictable and counterproductive: funnel increasing taxpayer resources to the traditional model of higher education while declaring war in the name of consumer protection on for-profit colleges. The Department of Education, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and multiple state attorneys general have led the attacks. Much of this is purely ideological--regulators simply assert that for-profit firms are suspect, whereas non-profit providers are presumed innocent. In short, regulators have rejected the most potent method for improving consumer choice and quality and reducing cost in virtually every other market--competition. In this book, the author examines the case for competition in higher education, focusing particularly on competition among different governance structures, including non-profit, for-profit, faculty control, and more. Unprofitable Schooling provides a sober and informative assessment of the state of higher education, critically covering historical assumptions, increasing government involvement, reflexive aversion to profit, and other, maybe unexpected, conclusions.