A way to reduce tuition costs

Evidently, Education Secretary Spellings has an interesting plan to reduce college tuition costs and make education more accessible; tracking the jobs and wages of college graduates (by college) over time. The Detroit News points out that this is idiotic from a bureaucratic point of view, as it would put yet another layer of bureaucracy (and more cost) into the educational process.

More importantly, it's not their job, and others are quite willing to do this. Fraternities have pointed out for years that their members have a leg up in employment--and if Harvard is superior to the U. of Southern N. Dakota at Hoople in various regards, they'd be foolish not to put together evidence that proves their point. (they'll lose at musicolology, of course)

No, if the government wants to reduce the cost of higher education, all it needs to do is stop fueling the fire with student loan guarantees and grants. If higher education is a good deal, colleges will provide the evidence to bankers, who will in turn underwrite those loans. If not, they won't.

On another note, Pat Buchanan has a very interesting column on how our tax system effectively subsidizes imports and penalizes domestic manufacturing. I don't agree with everything Pat says, but if he's right here, he's got a very good point.