I think the issue is that college administrators have introduced this policy, which amounts to a wealth transfer from some middle class families to other middle class families, without any input from elected officials and without any public debate. I suspect that there are many unintended consequences of using college tuition in an attempt to level the economic playing field, and a public debate would be a useful way to highlight the issues.
For example, consider two families with the same moderately high income, same number of kids and other family circumstances, with one key difference - family A has scrimped and managed to save a large sum to pay for their children's college costs, while family B spent all of their disposable income over the years on expensive cars, electronic toys and luxurious vacations, leaving no meaningful assets other than a fully mortgaged house. Likely result - family A gets no means tested aid, and pays full tuition costs, while family B gets all kinds of college aid in the form of grants, subsidized loans and the like. IMO, family A has every right to be angry to find that they are paying inflated tuition that is being used in part to subsidize family B's profligate lifestyle. |
