William J. Bennett’s latest book, co-authored with David Wilezol, asks the question: Is College Worth It?

College Fix contributor and Hillsdale College student Jack Butler answers this question in a piece forThe Washington Free Beacon:

The financial crisis and its aftermath have exposed the truth about modern higher education despite decades of airy pieties. Bennett and Wilezol relay the staggering data on student loan debt (the average grad now leaves college owing $23,300); and post-graduate employment prospects (in 2011, 54 percent of recent graduates were unemployed).

They also identify the root culprit: “…the commonly held belief that ‘everyone should go to college.” It is a belief encouraged, of course, by boundless federal loans and opportunistic politicians. …

Bennett and Wilezol’s book could have two immensely positive effects. It could help counteract the mindless “college for all” crusade of the past few decades; and it could lead to more honest assessments about college’s worth among both parents and their college-age children. The authors never recommend that nobody should go to college. Rather, they simply ask for more sober, practical, and personalized analyses of its worth. …

Some of the solutions the authors propose include: ensuring that students know more about the loans they sign up for and encouraging co-signing; means-testing loans to direct them to genuine need and to necessary student expenditures; increasing transparency and accountability at colleges and universities (especially in light of absurd compensation for faculty and administration, college presidents in particular); forcing faculty to teach more (and forcing students to learn more); ending the “arms race” for better facilities; and embracing online education. All of these make sense. One hopes education policymakers are paying attention.

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