Bloomberg Blog Post

In the Bloomberg article “Professor Obama Grades U.S. Colleges, Finds It Tests Him,” by Janet Lorin, there were many statements made regarding college accountability that I adamantly agreed with. However, a subtle side comment in the article made me want to play devil’s advocate to the entire opinion piece. At the end of the article, the author cites the idea of Charles Wight, who stated, “A better way for schools to be more accountable is to make them pay a portion of any loan defaults by their former students.” As a disclaimer, I have always been for an increase in college accountability. However, I feel this opinion regarding college accountability on loan defaults not only would increase college accountability, but also disastrously decrease student liability. Wight’s argument would make it that students could display less concern and more ignorance toward about job security, job placement, and financial budgeting because they would know that if they failed they would have the school to fall back on. Similarly, even if the students did still try their hardest in the university, this method of having colleges be reliable for portions of loan defaults completely ignores student choice. Students may default on their loans for many reasons that do not relate to the university they went to. For example, a student could be well aware that their particular college is very expensive and they may also know that they are going into a very low-paying field, but that student may still feel the need to pursue that degree anyway. Therefore, the student would have a mountain of loans and very little income, increasing his or her probability of defaulting on loans. This was not an error on the college, but instead a choice by the student. While I advocate for stricter regulations on college affordability, I also believe there must be some responsibility placed on the student.