Should Government Mandate Unviersity Endowment Spending?

There is no debating the fact that a college education in the United States today is becoming more and more difficult to afford, both for students and their families. Tuitions have been consistently rising faster than inflation rates, and things have gotten even worse in the face of our economic struggle. But the answer is not government intervention.

Recent government action has tried to move toward forcing university spending of endowment in order to better financial aid, which is simply not the best course of action in order to alleviate the burden on students. Some schools already have impressive financial aid systems in place, so it is unfair to mandate spending of the endowment when the cost of attending some of these universities is actually decreasing on average.

Forcing universities to take action is simply not a good choice. Universities understand the difficulties that paying for college causes, and most of them are tending to do their best to help reduce the burden; spending as much of their endowment as they can afford to help the students. Essentially, universities should have the right to be in control of their own finances; they know what is best for the university, and they are certainly watching out for their students. This kind of mandate for spending of the endowment is extremely risky, and makes universities much more vulnerable in times of market downturn; in which their endowments will struggle. Ultimately, this is not the government’s role. A blanket mandate of endowment spending is simply not responsible, although I would certainly be open to hearing other ideas on how this problem can be alleviated.


http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S22/09/09O21/

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