Should taxpayers fund any and every choice in school and/or major?

[allvia]

Some have proposed that we end government-backed loans because it'll force colleges to lower their tuition.

I'm one of them. Plus I'd replace Pell grants with a dollar for dollar refundable tax credit, killing Title IV altogether and ending the feds' incentive to subvert accreditors into being financial aid gatekeepers.

A few things that come to mind.

1. Poor, young students wouldn't have money upfront. Sure, Walmart and Target will pay for your tuition, but we can't expect millions of college students to work at a handful of companies. Not to mention that getting a job at these companies isn't guaranteed. Walmart and Target wouldn't even give me an interview. LOL. 

...

1. Schools that serve low income populations and are financially stable can make arrangements to get paid in arrears. Schools that aren't finally stable are circling the drain anyway. Note that this isn't a hypothetical, as Hillsdale and Grove City College actually have a system for this because they don't participate in Title IV on principle. A number of non-participating DEAC schools have figured this out too.

...

@SteveFoerster - What you're describing is a loan, so I don't see how that would be helpful. The difference is that the Student now owes the money at the end to the school, vs the government or a financial institution. Who is to determine who is worthy of this new loan system - the school? If so, we're back to limiting access to many deemed not credit worthy due to being poor to begin with.

On this topic, but not a direct response to this post quoted. Who is to determine what subjects are of value to study - at any given moment in time? What is in demand changes, often quicker than you'd think - but only realized in hindsight. Some fields that could be deemed very valuable today, could easily not exist a decade (or less) from now.  Math is not automatically more valuable than music, literature is not of less value than economics - they're all just different parts of the whole body of knowledge.   I'm not disagreeing with a need of reform, I'm saying the answers are not as simple as restricting AOS subjects or eliminating loans/grants for students.