Hold Colleges Accountable for America's Student Loan Crisis 

Although his administration has already provided more student debt relief than any other in history, news reports suggest President Biden is looking to cancel even more student loan debt. Whether the President will embrace his campaign proposal of up to $10,000 of in debt relief, or provide more targeted loan forgiveness (he should to help those in most need), one thing is certain—America’s universities and colleges will once again get a free pass for the financial mess that they helped to create.

Since the 1970s, U.S. institutions of higher learning have done everything in their means to avoid the hard decisions that would hold tuition costs down. Rather than cut wasteful spending and bloat, colleges and universities have rapidly expanded administrative staff and constructed new infrastructure in an effort to “keep up with the joneses.” Administrators now outnumber faculty at a growing number of schools. For example, the number of administrators at Yale University today slightly exceeds the number of faculty (5,066 managers and staff compared to 4,937 instructors). 

Meanwhile, college and university presidents seem much more interested in building cutting edge dormitories and amenities like “lazy river pools” to attract more paying customers, rather than modernizing and innovating their school’s outmoded model of higher education.

What’s worse is that our nation’s institutions of higher education have financed this spending boom on the backs of students and their families. Since 1970, average in-state tuition has risen over 2,000% at both public and private schools, while average student loan debt has jumped 317% on average.

Most school administrators act as though college loans are a minimal inconvenience for students and their families, as a former university dean once told me, no more burdensome than the cost of a loan for an inexpensive car. And when pressed on why tuition has risen so much so fast, most direct blame to less government support for America’s colleges and universities. In reality, national investment in higher education in America is much greater today (in inflation-adjusted dollars) than in the 1960s. For example, the defense budget is about 1.8 times higher today than it was in 1960, while federal appropriations to higher education are more than 10 times higher.

There's no social justice without public safety 

America’s deepest blue cities are sending progressives an unmistakable message: If your definition of “criminal justice reform” doesn’t include reducing crime and upholding public order, count us out.  

Crime has vaulted near the top of voters’ concerns, just after the economy and inflation. According to Gallup, 80 percent of Americans worry “a great deal” or a “fair amount” about crime, the highest level in two decades.

Such fears pose yet another midterm election hurdle for Democrats, on top of public angst over soaring prices and President Biden’s dismal public approval ratings. A recent poll found that voters give Republicans a 12-point advantage when asked which party they trust most to handle crime.

The public mood has swung dramatically since the public outcry in 2020 over the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other unarmed Black citizens. That put the national spotlight on police brutality and systemic racism in the criminal justice system.

During the pandemic, however, a sharp rise in murders and thefts, especially in the country’s major urban centers, has spread alarm and made public safety the burning issue. Strongly reinforcing that trend is the appearance of large homeless encampments beset by overdose deaths, violence and anti-social behavior by people with psychosis.

There’s also a backlash among urban Democratic voters and Black mayors like New York’s Eric Adams and San Francisco’s London Breed against the activist left’s fanciful ideas for criminal justice reform. The system needs an overhaul, but progressive calls for “defunding the police” or ignoring “quality of life” crimes defy common sense.

Last week, for example, voters in ultra-liberal San Francisco emphatically gave District Attorney Chesa Boudin the boot in a recall election. Boudin exemplified the new breed of “progressive prosecutors” who seem more committed to keeping offenders out of jail than protecting law-abiding citizens.