How Free is FREE Education? What Liberians can expect.

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.