Policy

Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds on the Future of Higher Education and How Kids are Getting Wise to Student Loan Debt

|

The next few weeks will be filled with university commencement ceremonies that are being held all over the country. But what does a college degree really mean today? Reason TV interviewed Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds last month on perception of higher education and potential reforms. The original writeup is below:

"It's kind of a weird thing that's happened with American society—this idea that you have to have a college degree to be a respectable member of the middle class," says Glenn Reynolds, professor of law at the University of Tennessee and purveyor of the popular Instapundit blog. Reynolds' latest work, The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education From Itself, looks at the higher education bubble and how parents, students, and educators can remake the education system. 

Reynolds sat down with Reason TV's Alexis Garcia to discuss why Americans are spending more for a college education and how students are responding to increasing tuition costs. "Given how expensive it is to go to college, there has to be a return sufficient to make it worth the time and especially the money," Reynolds states. "You're seeing declining enrollment in some schools and you're seeing much more price resistance on the part of both parents and students."

The discussion also includes Reynolds' take on school choice, the upcoming elections, the current state of the blogosphere, and whether or not both political parties are necessary. Nearly a decade after Reynolds published An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths, the blogfather still remains optimistic about technology's ability to empower the individual and inspire grassroots movements. 

Approximately 19 minutes long.

Click here to read Glenn's favorite work, Memorandum from the Devil by Arthur A. Leff. 

Produced by Alexis Garcia. Camera by Paul Detrick, Zach Weissmueller, and Tracy Oppenheimer. After Effects graphics by William Neff. 

Scroll down for downloadable versions, and subscribe to Reason TV's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.