Taxpayer-funded Higher Education

In a familiar rite of spring, colleges across the country are waving farewell to recent graduates, as the young lads and lasses march off to the workforce to put their shiny new degrees to work.

Well, at least that's the way things used to work.

With the economy still in the doldrums, significant amounts of college graduates have not found a job, and their prospects for finding a job look pretty bleak.

Which brings us to the main point: government subsidies of higher education.

The White House touts the government's efforts in making college more "affordable": Pell grants, support of community colleges, loan forgiveness programs and most importantly, direct subsidized loans for students to attend college.

Of course, it's good for a country to have a well-educated populace. But an education can be gained in many different forms. Should that education be funded at taxpayer expense, while basically expecting the recipient to sit for four years in a cushy environment living a bohemian lifestyle?

More and more students are discovering that government subsidies only increase the cost of college, as colleges simply increase tuition and fees to capture the money coming in from the government to pay for it. This ultimately leaves students in worse financial predicament after graduating than they'd be without the subsidies, when factoring in the significant debt they are saddled with in order to pay for that education.

Far better for the government to end all of its college subsidies, which would have the effect of encouraging students to pursue much more cost-effective educational programs, like distance-learning or internet-based studies, that enables them to work part-time while studying, therefore avoiding significant student debts that need to be reckoned with after graduation.