shifting state university funding from taxation to loan debt is deeply regressive

I'm working on a long post about the rising costs of college, but I want to point out a small bore but important point now. It's crucial to remember that we're talking about broad trends and aggregates when we talk about the rising cost of college, and I want particularly to point out that the situation is quite different in private and public colleges writ large. It's certainly true that public university tuition is growing beyond what is healthy or in keeping with the ideals of affordable public education, and I further think that part of the rise is from unhealthy administrative and infrastructural growth, as I have described in the past. However, it is also the case that public university tuition is rising because state funding has plummeted. State colleges are attempting to cope with state legislatures which are abandoning our long commitment to cheap, quality postsecondary education.

I find this, frankly, awful from a position of an equitable society and social justice. While I'm a committed skeptic of the idea that college education for everyone is desirable or just, broad access to college education is an entirely righteous development and something we should all be proud of. I think it's really important to point out that shifting the burden of public education from taxation to students (and their parents)-- from state aid to tuition paid for by student loans-- is in effect a deeply regressive change. It takes the shared sacrifice of all taxpayers, with a progressive scheme of taxation that ensures that those who are able to pay more do, and shifts the burden to the students and their future selves. (If you'd like to hear an argument for progressive taxation generally, you should check your favorite economists, including flaming lefties like Hayek, Friedman, or Smith.) This is particularly unfortunate because obtaining a college education is seen as one of the primary mechanisms through which people can improve their socioeconomic standing. (And, as I will continue to insist against all of the panicky rhetoric, the college wage premium is real, large, and growing.)

Incidentally, this dynamic is not only regressive, it also seems to me to be uniquely anti-stimulative. People who graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt can't spend and stimulate the economy even after they get a high paying job. So much of our gradual collapse into a stagnated and massively unequal economy is a choice.