California’s Higher Education Systems Wage War on Students - Reihan Salam, National Review

What Pilati fails to address is whether the public college system is capable of serving students at a price students and taxpayers are willing or able to pay, and whether there are lower-cost alternatives that can achieve the objective of preparing students for upper-level coursework or the labor market. As Medicaid and other expenditures have increased, tuition subsidies have been squeezed as the cost of higher education has increased, and students have been bearing the burden. Steinberg’s measure is designed to contain the cost of higher education to shield students from cost increases. It is certainly possible that California community colleges offer a much higher quality product than the third-party alternatives that would have to be approved by California’s Open Educational Resources Council under the plan — and that is why we ought to compare students side-by-side, factoring cost-effectiveness into the equation. http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/344277/californias-higher-education-systems-wage-war-students-reihan-salam