Marketplace of Ideas: Free Market for Higher Education

William G. Stuart, a sales executive living in Cummaquid, Mass., has attended both public and private institutions of higher education. This article appeared in the December 1993 edition of The Freeman magazine.

Everyone who wants to participate in the system is eligible to apply, and most applicants who agree to abide by the program rules are accepted. Family income is not considered in determining eligibility. In fact, those with higher family incomes are much more likely to apply for and be accepted into this program than those with lower family incomes. Are you ready to move to Massachusetts to participate in this program? You do not have to move. Your state offers the same program—and you may have received benefits already.

This program is state-financed, state-delivered higher education. Few people view public higher education as a welfare program. In its design, however, it is like any other “collectivist” program in which people participate involuntarily: individual benefits in no way reflect costs; subsidized prices distort the decision-making process; and collective public political consensus is substituted for the private judgments of individuals.