A Debate on the Higher Ed "Business Model"

Last February, I participated in a debate organized by the Miller Center of Public Affairs and broadcast on PBS. That was one in a series of debates on issues of national importance the Miller Center has done. They followed that debate with another one on higher education, with the question being whether the business model of higher education is broken. In today's Pope Center Clarion Call, I take a rather critical look at the "business model" debate. It generated a little heat (specifically the hostility one debater, a community college president, has for the for-profit sector) but didn't shed much light on the key question: why does higher education cost so much?