Government interventions of all sorts have unintended consequences -- usually bad. Two such consequences of federal intervention in higher education are that it has become far more expensive than otherwise, and that it causes the income gap between rich and poor to increase. In my latest Pope Center article, I discuss some recent evidence for both propositions.
Regarding the latter, I'm no egalitarian and don't automatically fret over statistical gaps -- but I don't like policies that artificially make some people wealthier while they make others poorer. That's what our higher education mania is doing.
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