More on Higher Education

by David Safier

Add Brown University to the list of colleges and universities that are ending tuition for students who might not be able to afford it:

Brown University is eliminating tuition for students whose parents earn less than $60,000 . . . The university, in Providence, R.I., said on Saturday that it also planned to substitute grants for student loans in the financial aid packages of students whose families earned less than $100,000 a year.

If the free-tuition trend is becoming a fad, I’m a big fan of the latest hula hoop. (How many of you did I lose with that 1950s reference?)

On a more ominous note, and one that makes this move toward free tuition even more important, a New York Times article discusses a study that concludes, “widening gaps in higher education between rich and poor, whites and minorities, could soon lead to a downturn in opportunities for the poorest families.”

The good news in the study is that a college education really does help raise a person’s future economic status. The bad news is that “Hispanic and black Americans were falling behind whites and Asians in earning college degrees, making it harder for them to enter the middle class or higher.”

Free tuition will help, but certainly not solve, this problem. If the schools attended by poor students are doing a lousy job, those students won’t get the education they need to succeed at our top colleges and universities. Free tuition won’t do them any good.

Another disheartening finding, which has been reported on before, is that black children raised in middle class homes often struggle in school and have lower incomes as adults than their parents. I can think of a number of reasons why this could be true, but it still breaks my heart to see the progress of one generation lost by the next.

A Few Notes on Other Subjects. First: I’ve been meaning to write about the proposed TUSD school closings, but other stories keep getting my attention. I’ll get around to it soon. The school closings issue isn’t going anywhere. Second: Coming soon — A Tax-And-Spend-Liberal (TASL) News Service manifesto, explaining the purpose of my newly formed, one man crusade to reestablish the idea that (gasp!) the state needs to generate enough revenue to serve its citizens.