Education issues have received little attention in the last two Republican presidential primary debates, but were briefly spotlighted by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday in the undercard debate.
“Should for-profit schools be held accountable when they take taxpayer money and leave students deep in debt?” CNBC moderator Becky Quick said to Jindal.
“You either trust the American people to make their own choices, or you don’t,” Jindal said. “I know the Left thinks we need to be protected from ourselves. President Obama is trying to limit competition in the higher education market, as a result you’re going to see tuition prices continue to go up. We’ve had a trillion dollars of student debt and counting and he wants to exempt certain schools from the same oversight he wants to apply only to the for-profit market. For some reason, the private sector is a bad word to this president, it’s not in the real world.”
As Quick noted, for-profit colleges make up 11 percent of the college population but 44 percent of student loan defaults.
Jindal took the rare opportunity to discuss education on a debate stage to trumpet his school choice policies on the K-12 level.
“In Louisiana we fought so that the dollars follow the child, instead of the child following the dollar. What that means from K-12 is that parents and their families can decide what’s the best way for their children to be educated.”
Jindal added that liberals don’t trust the American people, and that’s how the country got Common Core.
“There’s accountability to students through choice and competition. We don’t need the nanny state to protect us from ourselves,” Jindal concluded to audience applause.
CNBC cut to commercials before asking any education follow-up questions or giving other candidates a chance to respond.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
