Giving Compass' Take:

• In this piece from Cato Institute, Neal McCluskey discusses 5 problems he believes there are with Senator Elizabeth Warren's higher education proposal.

•  What is the role of donors in helping advance higher education policy? How are donors impacted by education policy? 

• Here are 3 higher education proposals to watch from the White House. 

Presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has unveiled a gargantuan higher education spending plan that promises to wipe out almost all student debt, render public college tuition-and-fee free, cut off for-profit schools, and greatly increase spending on institutions with high-minority student bodies. There is too much that is problematic with the plan to tackle in a relatively quick response, so I’ll restrict myself to its five biggest problems.

  1. It’s Not Fair. Let’s start with a moral objection: it’s just not fair. Warren’s intent may be laudable, but forgiving those who took out loans is not fair to the people who avoided debt.
  2. There Is No National Student Loan “Crisis.” Let’s agree—as we should—that the price of college is artificially high, and student aid has fueled a lot of that inflation.
  3. It Misdiagnoses The Problem. Like others before her, Sen. Warren blames cutbacks in state support to public colleges for the problem of skyrocketing prices.
  4. Too Much Of A Good Thing. An argument for Warren’s plan is that we want an educated populace, but the price of college makes getting it too difficult.
  5. Who Drives The Economy? Senator Warren assumes that if people weren’t saddled with student debt they would be buying lots of stuff and spurring the economy.

Read the full article about problems with Warren's higher ed proposal by Neal McCluskey at Cato Institute.