Politics

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

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Ending weeks of speculation, Mitt Romney formally chose Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as his Vice Presidential pick. ReasonTV sat down with Ryan back in 2009 to discuss the country's fiscal issues and why we don't need more public funding for higher education. 

Here is the orginal text from the July 14, 2009 video:

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.