Should the Federal Bureaucracy Play a Role in Funding Higher Education?

In the United States, education is usually a State or local responsibility. Usually, states, communities, and public and private organizations establish schools and colleges, develop curriculum, and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation. The structure of education finance in America reflects this predominant State and local role. Of an estimated $1.15 trillion being spent nationwide on education at all levels for school year 2011-2012, a substantial majority will come from State, local, and private sources. This is especially true at the elementary and secondary level, where about 87.7 percent of the funds will come from non-Federal sources. Over the past decade, college tuition has increased an average of 4.9 percent per year, meaning that a student who paid $3,000 per year in tuition in 2000 would pay $4,840 in 2010 for the same education. The rising costs have created increasing concerns about how many middle-class families will be able to pay for their children’s higher education.

There has long been a debate on the issue of how big of a role the federal bureaucracy should play in funding higher education. To address educational the funding dilemma, some educational policy experts argue that the best way to is to increase the federal Department of Education’s role in providing student loans, Pell Grants, and other programs designed to help students finance their educational aspirations. The expert observers suggest that the federal bureaucracy has unique knowledge and resources in the area of educational policy that make it well-suited to providing and administering a wide array of higher education programs. Other observers believe that it should not be the federal bureaucracy’s responsibility to administer programs to defray the costs of higher education. They argue that the federal bureaucracy is already too big and that expanding the purview of the federal bureaucracy will negatively impact American society. With this comes the questions of whether or not the federal bureaucracy is qualified to distribute education benefits to all Americans, or if the Department of Education be responsible for assuring that higher education is affordable for all Americans, and If not, where the responsibility should fall.

People who argue for the federal bureaucracy’s role in funding higher education may say that only the federal bureaucracy is best suited to offer certain services, that that federal bureaucracy has a responsibility to help citizens, and that the federal bureaucracy does not focus on earning a profit. Those arguing against the federal bureaucracy’s role in funding education may believe private banks and corporations can provide services more efficiently and less expensively than the federal bureaucracy, that it is not the federal bureaucracy’s job to administer higher education programs, and that students already receive money from their education. In my opinion, the federal bureaucracy should concern itself with issues of education. Ensuring and securing the education of the nation’s youth plays an important role in building the nation’s future.