Links for 9/30/09

Free Exchange:

a key value of universities has nothing at all to do with what a student does while enrolled, and instead stems from the filtering mechanism of the admissions process. College degrees may be useful because the admissions department has done the difficult background work of identifying promising candidates for employment. They act as ratings agencies, in a sense, screening products and declaring them "safe" or "risky". It would be interesting if in the future there are organisations which play this role more explicitly, offering to investigate a candidate's history and skillset for a fee, and certifying qualified candidates, all in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of an actual university education.

But one way or another, the digital and internet revolution should ultimately reveal just what everyone is paying for when they write that tuition cheque.

Brian Faler on the CBO:

the more sweeping the proposal, the more likely its estimates will miss the mark because on such legislation the agency has the least amount of data, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf said.

The seven deadly sins of the academy.


Kelly Field:

Between January 1, 2008, and the end of June 2009, the top 20 participants in the federal bank-based loan program spent nearly $14-million lobbying the federal government… At the same time, they've showered members of the Congressional education committees with close to $600,000 in donations. The lenders' chief goal: to persuade Congress to reject President Obama's plan to end bank-based student lending.