HIGH TUITION/HIGH AID: CLASSIC ARGUMENTS
PRO:
1. Increasing tuition is good public policy
2. States charge students less than what it actually costs to educate a student
3. This creates a subsidy for students regardless of need or family ability to pay
4.This is:
a)Inefficient – because a large number of students and families who do not
need the subsidy receive it;
b) Inequitable — because it spends more money on the middle class and well-
off than on low-income individuals
3. High tuition approach necessitates a high financial aid response
a) to preserve equal opportunity for low-income and disadvantaged students
b) to promote access with students who might otherwise self-preclude
CON:
1. Thinks that public subsidies should be distributed broadly through low tuition,
rather than targeting them;
2. Views society as the primary beneficiary of public expenditures on higher
education;
3. Subsidizes the education of all enrolled students regardless of financial need;
4. Increases signal:
a) an erosion to educational equity and opportunity for the poor and the
middle class who downgrade their educational choices, or
b) opt out of higher education altogether
http://www.unc.edu/~jfstewar/home/tuition/tuition_aid.pdf
http://www.unc.edu/~jfstewar/home/tuition/tuition_aid.pdf