Robert Jensen |

AUSTIN — Want to lower the cost of college? End all federal subsidies for higher education.

That was the provocative solution proffered at a panel discussion Friday put on by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative Austin think tank whose “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” for higher education have created a firestorm of controversy within the Texas A&M University and University of Texas Systems.

Neal McCluskey, a free-market advocate with the Cato Institute, said federal student aid such as Pell grants and research grants drive up costs, stifle competition and make students and universities less price-sensitive.

“If you are using your own money, you demand a good product,” McCluskey said. “You professors need to be teaching me something, not doing research or sitting in your office not doing office hours.” Read More

By William Lutz

The Texas Public Policy Foundation hosted a panel discussion April 29 on higher education, which featured a surprising guest — University of Texas President William Powers, Jr. TPPF and UT administrators are engaged in a very public disagreement on how to reform higher education.

The panel started with a discussion from two conservative think tanks about higher education. The panel moderator, William Murchison (a contributing editor for LSR), noted that tuition was $50 per semester when he was at UT in 1959, and asked what could be done about the cost of higher education.

Neil McCluskey, associate director of the CATO Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, said the biggest problem in higher education is federal subsidies. He noted that money does not equal better outcomes and that federal subsidies have skyrocketed. He noted that federal subsidies distort the market’s pricing signals and allow universities to charge more. He noted s the “people who have power are the [leaders of] the Faculty Senate” and said he hoped the tough economic times would result in subsidies being reined in. Read More