The Case Against College Entitlements with Rep. Paul Ryan and Author Charles Murray

President Barack Obama has declared that his administration aims to make college affordable to everyone by greatly expanding government aid to middle class families. The Washington Post says that Obama's higher education proposals, which include creating a brand new Pell Grant entitlement, "could transform the financial aid landscape for millions of students while expanding federal authority to a degree that even Democrats concede is controversial."

But what if President Obama has it backwards? What if America is sending too many people to college?

A recent study found that "Nationally, four-year colleges graduated an average of just 53% of entering students within six years." If 40 percent of students who enter college drop out before graduation and over 50 percent of students take six years to graduate, perhaps Obama is focusing on the wrong issue.

Reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan sat down with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and the American Enterprise Institute's Charles Murray, author of the recent book Real Education, to analyze how Obama's higher-education plans will impact the economic and cultural future of the United States.

Scroll down for embed code, an audio podcast, and iPod and HD versions.

For a YouTube version of this video, go here.

• Category

  News & Politics

[ForTehNguyen]

"Everybody should own a home!"

*bubble pop*

"Everyone should go to college!"

*guess what happens next*

[Trimbler00]

I'm a college student right now and it's a pain in the ass trying to get together federal, state, government grants for college, all of which distort the sticker price and complicate college financing. I ABSOLUTELY agree with Murray's position as well. Some people don't belong here-- they've been shipped over by many well-intentioned high school counselors who have spent their whole lives idolizing academia.

[moonunit1980]

Bunch of wealthy jerk offs who dont want poor people to get an education.

[Jose Santiago]

I went to college and had classes with people who didn't want to be there. I'm poor and went for the education part. I regret it. I could have spent those four years working. Now I'm in debt, in more debt than my parents and grandparents were when they had my age.

[DavidVonR]

The reason why tuitions are so high is because of government subsidizes. If the government got out of higher education, virtually no one could afford to pay such expensive tuitions, and demand would plummet. This would forces colleges to cut tuition prices until most students could afford to pay tuition themselves or could obtain private loans to do so.

[DavidVonR]

Colleges and universities are lowering standards, so more students can enter college and graduate, so that colleges can obtain more government money. The reason why tuition is so expensive, why the quality of education has gone down and why 50% of college graduates are underemployed is because of what the government is doing.

[ror yow]

so why dont you go and work at the blue collar jobs for the rest of your life? real smart because no one wants to be ambitious and actually strive to be the best they can be.

[ror yow]

What the fuck? So you should have more uneducated people, so that only the people who are rich can get good jobs, and only they will make the most money.

[huntrosofsparta]

So we should be trying to send less people to college and spend less money on educating our young people? Should guarantee more of the types of people that would vote for Paul Ryan.

[Leandro Avila]

More over, the reason why many jobs require a degree is spouted for quality control which is a lie. Though licenses may pose a QC mechanism, licensure do more harm than good by providing a clear way to self-regulate industries which almost always leads to unintended protectionism. The natural mechanisms of quality assurance w/o licenses forces more selective employment selection and thus aligns the educational focus towards real practice outcomes instead of the test prepping schools we have