Hoodwinked – Say No to ‘Free’ College

Should New Jersey provide tuition-free community college to students? Our new governor, Phil Murphy, says yes. I, on the other hand, believe that it is an absurd and dishonest weight being foisted upon an already overtaxed citizenry by our new governor in order to repay a political debt he owes. Let me explain. 
In a piece in the Wall Street Journal May 2, 2018,  entitled, “My Clients Are Fleeing NJ Like It’s on Fire,”  James Freeman wrote, “The Garden State … has the third largest overall tax burden and the country’s highest property tax collections per capita. Now that federal reform has limited the deduction for state and local taxes, the price of government is surging again among high-income earners in New Jersey and other blue states. Taxpayers are searching for the exits.” Freeman goes on to quote Jeffrey Sica, founder of Circle Squared: “As soon as people are not tied to the area for business reasons, they leave.”
If the economy of our state were really popping, we might expect people to grin and bear it, but that’s not our case. Freeman explains that “In the decade ending in 2016, real economic growth in New Jersey clocked in at a compound annual percentage rate of 0.1 …less than a tenth of the national average.”
With our current tax levy so high, why is Murphy adding to the load, when he needs to be looking for ways to reduce the affliction?  Plainly and simply, he has to pay his supporters back, period… and we are supposed to quietly knuckle under. Let’s remember, it takes a lot of support and costs a lot of money from powerful people and organizations to run for governor, and that support comes at a high price.
The governor secured the endorsement of the America Federation of Teachers, who stood to gain a lot if our tax money would go to pay the students’ tuition for community colleges — Colleges are struggling financially, which jeopardizes teachers’ jobs, who pay dues to the union. 
What is the big picture? Given that there is no such thing as a free lunch, how much schooling should the government provide, and how much of the cost should fall to the student and his or her family?  Richard Vedder offered an opinion in the April 30, 2018, edition of Forbes entitled, “What Universities Need: More Skin In The Game.” He argues that both the colleges and the students need greater incentives to improve performance. He points out that at some schools only a third of the students graduate within six years.
He notes that “The graduation rates are higher at private schools that on average are more expensive than at lower cost public schools. As a general proposition, where students have more skin in the game, they have greater incentives to graduate in a timely manner, four years instead of five or six years – or not at all… One of the problems with free tuition proposals is that by largely removing skin in the game for students, they dull incentives to excel academically.”
New Jersey’s politics-as-usual no longer works. We have been bled too long, to the detriment of the taxpayers and the state. Our representatives in Trenton need to rein in this governor in order to stanch the outflow of our citizens to other states. And let’s not forget, the more we drive taxpayers out, the more each of us has to pay.