Increasing college attendance is no guarantee of generating more prosperity.

National Review reports.

The Tragedy of “College for All”

Phi Beta Cons readers are well aware that state and federal policymakers’ drive to increase college access has had disastrous effects. Student debt has increased; academic standards have slipped; many colleges have focused more on luring students with financial aid dollars, and less on enhancing students’ educational experiences; and, as the labor market has become saturated with college degree holders, the value of the college credential has diminished at a rapid rate.

In North Carolina, as Jenna A. Robinson and Jay Schalin explain in today’s Pope Center feature, student debt has been increasing at all 16 public universities within the University of North Carolina system. But it gets worse. As student debt has increased, student loan default rates have gone up markedly, especially at the state’s historically black universities, which tend to have lower admissions standards and lower graduation rates than non-HBCUs. In other words, students from low-income households and weak K-12 environments are being pushed into college, where many will fail to graduate within a reasonable time (or not graduate at all) and take out loans that they have almost no chance of paying off. This is, of course, a major waste of taxpayer resources. It’s also a major burden on the students whom policymakers had hoped to help.

“It is apparent that increasing college attendance does not necessarily contribute to greater general prosperity. Instead, it is in many cases placing a millstone around the necks of the very young people who can least afford it,” write Robinson and Schalin.