Academic

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Who is this defender of free markets against the scourge of governm?

By Glenn Reynolds

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Who is this defender of free markets against the scourge of government regulation? Has he spoken to the Post?s editorial board lately? Heh. More:

There is a point about government involvement that?s worth making here. If, as critics claim, there is too much money going to these institutions too fast, its at least partly because the government is making so much cheap capital available to attend them. If there?s one thing we should have learned from the housing bubble it?s that the lure of cheap credit is hard to resist. And what happens when lots of dollars chase limited goods or services? Prices go up of course. Take the government money off the table (or reduce the amount) and the market will settle. Eventually, institutions like Kaplan will be forced to lower prices and improve offerings to bring in students.

I think the attacks on for-profit schools like Kaplan have been unfair — and largely meant to protect their traditional-school competitors from the higher-education bubble talk. But this is true.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

All through the health care debate the president and the advocates of his horrible health care bill repeated again and again how we pay more than other leading countries for far worse results. Why do they not make the same argument about public education? Instead it’s always how we need to pump more and more money into the system.

We both know the answer, but it would be nice to see some Republicans ask the question.

Interesting point.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on February 03, 2011 (boomark / email).