Obamas plan is best understood as a desperate effort to catch the horse after it has bolted. But rather than subsidising student outlays, it would be cheaper, smarter, and more efficient if the government could control the cost of education at the price point – as it does currently in Australia. And yet the Abbott government wants to trade in this public model for deregulation: allowing universities to set fee levels in their own interest at whatever levels they feel the market can sustain, instead of the government doing so in the public interest and thereby controlling overall student debt. Fee deregulation has proved a fiscal disaster in the US. Australia would be insane to go down the same road.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:15:00 +0000
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