Jack Balkin has a thoughtful reply to my critique of his case for public universities. He accepts a portion of my argument, but remains unconvinced. He posts, in relevant part:
in some cases its possible that remedying market failures either through public subsidizes or through direct government provisions of a public good can be worse than leaving things to the unassisted private market. But I have to say that providing education, and particularly higher education, is not one of those cases. And note that by education here I am speaking of more than mere vocational training, which markets can more easily provide; I mean education in features necessary for individuals to participate in governance and in culture generally. This sort of education is one of the clearest examples of a public good . . . . Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease, but this abstract formula becomes less plausible when you are talking about public education, and particularly higher education.
I remain unconvinced. Indeed, I think that Balkin is actually helping me make my point. Let me try and explain.
In theory, public higher education would involve “more than mere vocational training” and would instead emphasize “education in features necessary for individuals to participate in governance and in culture generally.” Balkin and I both agree that such education is tremendously important in a democratic society, but I do not think that the empirical evidence suggests that public universities – or even that public support for higher education – primarily serves that purpose. To the contrary, while we may be inclined to focus on the handful of truly elite public universities – Michigan, Berkeley, UCLA, Virginia, Texas – I would submit that the vast majority of public institutions of higher education are not focused on creating “educated” citizens, but on preparing people for the job market. At the typical state university or community college – where the bulk of such education subsidies go – the dominant majors are things like accounting, finance, marketing, and other vocation-oriented fields, not history, philosophy or literature. To the public resources that support these institutions we must also add the public subsidies for state professional schools (yes, including law schools) which do not provide the sort of public good with which Balkin is concerned.
Why is this important? Because it goes to my point that we must compare what private markets would actually do with what the political process actually produces. That is, we must acknowledge that while we might want public higher education dollars to focus on creating a truly educated citizenry, the actual political process tends to produce something different. We must acknowledge that the same businesses that may support private vocational schools are also likely to seek state subsidies for public vocational training. At the same time, as I noted in my prior post, there is reason to believe that state subsidies for certain types of private institutions can crowd out private philanthropic support for the same endeavors. (There are some recent economic studies of this phenomenon. I don’t have the citations handy, but will try to remember to post them later.) Finally, there is also research suggesting that state support of higher education is a significant factor in the increasing cost of higher education, thereby offsetting some of the putative benefits of such support. (Again, I’ll post the cites when they’re handy.)
For these reasons, I do not think the public good argument justifies public universities, and remain skeptical that government subsidies for higher education actually make society better off.
NOTE: The above are the views of Juan Non-Volokh and only Juan Non-Volokh. They should not be attributed to any other members of the Volokh Conspiracy, particularly those that may be employed by state institutions of higher learning.
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