Let Colleges Fail

Let Colleges Fail: The Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education
Richard K. Vedder (Independent Institute, $39.95, 230 pages)

It is axiomatic that you get what you paid for, except perhaps in post-secondary education where universities get bailed out by governments or donors and incentives and such that professors care more about research than teaching. Richard K. Vedder, founding director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, has written a stunning critique of U.S. universities, institutions that push ideological propaganda and graduate mediocre students unprepared for the challenges of the 21st century while saddling them with debt. Vedder places much of this blame on federal policy, government mandates and student loan programs. Schools are larded with bureaucracies responsible for diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that do nothing to advance the education of students. Vedder calls for the closing of the Department of Education and ending federal student loans believing that doing so will unleash the power of private markets to incentivize universities to lower their tuition and begin caring about the outcomes of their students. Vedder insists schools will pay more attention to student outcomes. (“One critical piece of data that no one collects is the measure of educational achievement during a student’s college years,” says Vedder.) He argues for less federal government intervention in higher education, but it is not obvious that state-level governments would not detrimentally intervene in post-secondary education to fill the gap that Washington would leave. Perhaps the threat of lower funding would encourage universities to innovate to deliver better education to students and respond to student needs but Vedder may be underestimating the vested interests of administrators, professors, and even politicians in the education status quo. While Vedder argues for less federal involvement in higher education, he also calls for a national college exam in order to provide reliable information on the job schools do to improve student knowledge and skills. A national exam would incentivize schools and professors to deliver a better education for students. Even before President Donald Trump threatened to withhold university funding from schools over their woke priorities, the financial footing of many universities was less than steady. Vedder says we should welcome the education bubble bursting so that universities can begin to focus on delivering knowledge and skills to students and caring less about periphery matters.