Restoring America

Conservative values, National renewal

Let colleges fail: How creative destruction can save higher education

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The National Center for Education Statistics reports that 99 postsecondary schools shut down this past academic year, roughly two per week. What the great economist Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction” is finally coming to higher education. 

Creative destruction was critical to the United States becoming the largest economy on Earth. Companies failing to adjust to changing consumer tastes, prices, and technologies were severely punished, while nimble, prescient entrepreneurs became wealthy. Once prominent companies such as Eastman Kodak, for example, went either bankrupt or became small shadows of their former selves, which freed resources to fund emerging new business leaders. 

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