The Economist looks at the changing economics of going to college, and how the financial crisis is going to change them more.

Key passage: Private borrowing for college has increased sevenfold in the last decade, and is set to rise even more. But if “a student is going to borrow, it is generally better to go through the government.” As a spokesperson for The Institute for College Access and Success puts it, private loans “really are not a form of student aid … they’re an expensive form of credit.”

The Economist‘s conclusion? “By bailing out some of the private lenders, [Treasury Secretary] Paulson risks giving the seal of government approval to a sometimes dodgy business.”

 

Update: When a center-right magazine like The Economist sides with students over banks, they’re going to provoke some interesting responses. Here’s my favorite screech from the comments on that piece:

The reality is too many people go to college, it lasts too long (+4 years in the US, only 3 in the UK), too many students study nonsense, and college professors teach too much nonsense. Students spend their 4-5 years taking classes in wine-tasting and astrology to round out their majors in Marxism or Interpretive Dance Theory. […] We NEED student loans to dry up because we need our terrible education system to die and be replaced by something better.