BCT Editorial – 10/21/04

This page was last updated on October 21, 2004.

Benign neglect; Editorial; Beaver County Times; October 21, 2004.

The first sentence of this editorial says, “In a way, the fiscal plight of Pennsylvania’s community colleges serves as another example of the way in which our alleged leaders in Harrisburg are mismanaging economic development.”

This simple statement speaks volumes of the Times’ beliefs. Who else but a socialist would believe government can “manage” economic development? How many times do we need to prove that government-directed economies inevitably fail?

As the Times editorial board, I believe solid education opportunities are key to economic development. Where we part company is when the Times believes government must at least partially fund education. We’ve long noticed major problems with government involvement in K-12 education. Now we’re seeing the same problems with government-subsidized higher education.

Just as with K-12 government education, the price for higher education is escalating at a rate far greater than the overall cost of living. The reason is government funding of education is a form of a third-party payer system. It’s similar to the problem we have with healthcare prices. When the person consuming the service – education or healthcare, for example – is not the person paying for it, the price inevitably climbs far higher than it would otherwise.

If we truly want to decrease the price of higher education and increase quality, we need to reduce government subsidies, not increase them. Only then can the free market move the price of education to its proper level.