16
A Study of Student Loans
other than commercial usefulness. The outworn appeals of “loyalty to
one’s Alma Mater,” “for the good of society,” and “the uplift of mankind”
are empty phrases which are out of harmony with modern changes in
human Organization. Our education must be put on a more individualistic
basis and the individual must pay a larger share of the cost, depending
upon the kind of value which can be assigned to the training he receives.
If the individual is to pay for a larger proportion of his education,
he will have to be guided how to meet these new demands both through a
wiser use of the resources at his command and through making available
to him additional resources in the form of loans. In Order to secure funds
so to assist him, it will be necessary that they be administered under business
principles.
If a higher price is to be placed upon higher education, it will be
necessary to study higher educational finance not only as it has been
studied from the standpoint of costs, but from the standpoint of benefits
derived by those who come in contact with it and the benefits given to
society as a whole. Thousands of dollars have been spent to study the
cost of higher education, but there has been great reluctance and no attempt
to estimate the values which higher education produces and what price
should be placed on such values. Perhaps higher education has no value
to either the individual or society; its efforts may be producing negative
results for all we know. It is necessary that we show what results higher
education is producing over a long period of time, that we assign values
to these, and that we Charge proportionately. If this is not possible, we
must declare higher education bankrupt. To say that it is not bankrupt, the
results which higher education brings about must be shown to possess values
sufficiently above cost to make it worthwhile for universities and Colleges to
continue and it must be shown also that it is a paying proposition for certain
individuals to purchase the Services of these institutions on credit.
A higher price for higher education may be justified by the fact that
in so far as it is deemed theoretically right for “the consumer to pay the
freight”, it is right for the educated to pay for his education. The
adoption of a sound Student loan plan would permit Colleges to increase
fees to meet costs, except where state institutions are strongly competitive,
and in time they will have to follow the trend in fairness to their tax paying
constituency. When the consumer is not able to “pay the freight” in cash,
the costs are not written off against him, but an agreement is entered into
for payment when the goods have enabled him to secure the necessary
funds. So too, in education the Services should not be given away simply
because the consumer is unable to pay at the time, but they should be
extended to him on a definite credit basis which should consist of well
administered Student loans.
