A Generation of Serfs: Tuition, Loans and Feudalism

On October 25, 1415, Henry V of England laid some serious hurt on the French at the Battle of Agincourt at Pas-de-Calais, France.  Part of the success of this campaign was due to Henry’s use of the longbow, but part of it also goes to the creative use of military indentures.  These legal contracts required all of the English captains to provide specified amounts of men, material and time to the King’s cause.

            An indenture was a document, written in duplicate and then torn along a jagged line, like little teeth (dents), in the paper.  One portion of the contract was in possession of each party and when the required conditions and period of service were fulfilled, the parts reunited and the debt was considered paid.  Many of the people who first came to this country from England came as indentured servants, worked off their debt and became the backbone of the country.

            Today we are creating a nation of not indentured servants, someone with a carefully delineated term of service, but serfs, people hopelessly and forever tied to the land that gives them sustenance.  I am talking about the crippling debt our students owe the government for their college education.

This serfdom was not planned, but is the result of the insidious and omnipresent law of unintended consequences.  I sigh, roll my eyes and wag a cautionary finger at people who are sure they can, “make things better” by enacting laws and passing out other people’s money, but I don’t hold them in contempt.  That is reserved for people who choose to capitalize on the error; in fact, they nurture the mistake, growing it in their favor, and work hard to make sure that no one ever finds out that there are rats eating the insulation!  In this case, I am talking about the effete dilettantes that make up American college administration.

            Let me try just three numbers for example, each of these numbers are adjusted for inflation.  They represent averages for tuition, room and board at public colleges.  In 1964 (the year I started college) the yearly cost was $950.   By 1990 that figure was $4757 (118% the rate of inflation).  In 2007 the cost was up to $11,034.  That is 173% of the rate of inflation!  Why are these costs now almost doubling the rate of inflation and outstripping the means of middle class families?

            According to Richard Vedder, professor of economics at Ohio University, and author of, Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, universities lack any incentive to lower prices or introduce efficiencies.  These administrators are insensitive to costs and hypersensitive to prestige.  To quote Mr. Vedder, “Like health care, prices are rising rapidly for higher education because of the predominant role of third-party payments—federal student loans and grants.”  It’s not their debt, why should they live within their means.  No pain, no problem!

            We can not allow our students to be made serfs to the feudal lords of government and academia.  First, right the wrong already done.  Retroactively, for each year that a student has paid on his student loan, 10% of it should be forgiven by the government.  That also means that in 10 years all debt would be removed (indenture, not serfdom).  Next, prevent further abuses by colleges.  Public universities have been offering published professors low case loads, alumni splashy sports programs and trustees anything they want.  I have seen no evidence that anyone’s education has improved through this regimen.

            Discount the loans, discipline the colleges and let our students achieve academic success while keeping the faith.