Republicans Opt to Make Education an Upper-Class Privilege - The American Prospect

[justaprogressive]

Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced their contribution to the giant tax cut and safety net reduction package yesterday, taking aim at nothing less than America’s future. The student loan provisions in the package would give high school graduates without family wealth two choices: don’t attend college, or find a private and likely high-cost loan so they can afford the education they are repeatedly told they need to compete in the 21st-century economy.

Federal student loans, as envisioned in the bill, would be an expensive, punitive, and downright dangerous financial vehicle. In perhaps the most shocking provision, victims of fraud by their colleges would still have to pay the loans issued to attend them. Other changes would make it easier for fraudulent colleges to re-enter higher education, after being drummed out by regulators in the recent past.

The Republican plan “reveals a betrayal of the promise Lyndon Johnson made when he signed the Higher Education Act in 1965,” said Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), ranking Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee. “Most of the provisions targeted toward reducing federal student aid exacerbate the college affordability crisis by limiting the students’ access to Pell grants and federal loans.”

The changes would reduce federal spending on student loans by up to $330 billion over a decade, thus creating headroom for tax cuts that will primarily benefit the wealthy. While Republicans on the committee claim that they are trying to rein in an unaccountable higher-education industry that has quintupled the real cost of college since 1970—a cost bloat they attribute to the availability of federal student loans—the pipeline from stingier financial aid to tax cuts is clear.

https://prospect.org/education/2025-04-30-republicans-education-upper-class-privilege-student-loans/

[Squaredeal]

1. Universities and Colleges should increase their tuitions.

For wealthy-class students and use part of these funds for free or minimal tuitions for students from middle and working-class families. A two-million dollar tuition for four years for the wealthy-class students could pay for one student from a rich family and seven from the rest of the population. Sounds like a reasonable solution to me.

[nitpicked]

2. Once upon a time in the DC area

In my field, the local university relied on retired federal workers for much of its teachers.

And it was a commuter school.

It was affordable.

THEN, in a chase for ratings, they hired a big name.

And they built dorms.

Now, it costs much more percent of a worker's yearly earnings than it did then.

[Johonny]

3. Which means lots of professors losing jobs

There are not enough rich people to keep colleges a float. The collapse of the US university system and basically the tech industry soon follow.