Free Market Education

Today on NPR I heard someone say that there need to be fewer scholarships, grants, and the like and more loans because someone’s education is their own concern. I don’t know who said it, but I know they are wrong. First of all, I certainly am concerned about whether Americans have real educational opportunities. You should be too. Thriving economies need an educated workforce. Societies with less crime and drug use also tend to be more educated societies. Democracies with educated electorates would also figure to be places where voters make better decisions. Second, my concerns will only be alleviated if everyone has equal access to education. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to trust that to banks. I’m not going to trust that to the free market. I’m not going to trust much to the free market. We learned long ago that the free market needs to be a little less than completely free. I don’t see the need to learn all over again that effective regulation is necessary. I also don’t see the utility in being shown, yet again, that government support for its citizens is not just charity. It’s not even mainly charity. Everyone benefits from the support government (and ultimately all of us) provides to people in need. Also, if any of the grand language of freedom and equality that has been mouthed by Americans since the beginning of America is to be more than empty words, we need to make it real with government action … and one of the key actions is support to those who are willing and able to work on their own educations. It’s also worth pointing out that a model where education and prosperity are guaranteed only for a minority, leaving the majority with no real opportunity for success of any kind, is not one built for the long term. If anything, we are moving in the wrong direction. We probably should provide education for all Americans free of cost. We certainly should be making sure that people who can’t afford an education can get one anyway, without question and without mortgaging away their futures. We probably should be making sure that everyone gets a good K-12 education, but that’s a gripe for another time. The bottom line is that even the most coldhearted person should see that it is in their own interest to make it possible for people to get a good education. They also should see that the idea of the free market is a fairy tale that was long ago proven to be inefficient and cruel and that government is important and has a role, and that to deny any of it is to deny the experience of the last hundred plus years. The truth doesn’t ever live in the extremes. That’s just the facts of life, and its true in every case, including education policy.