By:
Stephen Johnson
In
economics, there is an apothegm that states "there is NO such thing as
FREE lunch. This can be further expanded to mean that whatever goods and
services are provided, someone must pay them for. That is, you do not get
something for nothing. This can be juxtaposed with President George Weah's
recent pronouncement regarding free undergraduate education at all public
schools. While this may sense as a relief for our students and struggling
families, it has a COST, which eventually falls on the taxpayers. Lest we
forget, the notion of “free tuition” is simply a ruse as somebody will have to
pay for it…if not the student and his/her family then it will be the people who
pay taxes. This is why, we have asked the GoL to make public its source for
funding indicating which specific budget line items will be affected through
cuts. I hope that my colleagues at the MFDP can come through.
On the
other hand, we expect to see in surge in enrollment over the next few years and
run the risk of people in college who would not be there otherwise and are not
necessarily suited to it. The putting off of self-independence or the continued
maintenance by others supporting one could enforce the continual enlargement of
adolescence. I hope the GoL can take note!
Towards
this end, we must be mindful that while the intent MIGHT be good, it could
undermine overall quality since students are simply receiving a handout.
Studies have shown that something you've not worked hard to gain, there will be
less motivation to work hard. Of course, there are exceptions. There are
students who simply know how to work hard and love to study and learn, but
those are fairly rare. Additionally, as in everything, privatization is always
more successful. It seems that any time the national government gets involved,
things go bad and I believe that establishing a network/system to pursue that
sort of thing would benefit the most.
Finally,
speaking as an economist, the key advantage to our economy is GDP growth
(because economic growth is driven by productivity, and a key component of
productivity is education) so this is why emphasis must be placed on QUALITY
instead of QUANTITY. If we do this, the free undergraduate policy will pay for
itself over time through GDP growth and become more of an investment than a
cost.
