Higher education policy shouldn’t punish big families

Our nation’s higher education system is in need of fundamental reform. It has lost the faith of the public, it requires constant fraudulent bailouts by the federal government, and it increasingly fails to prepare students for the jobs available in today’s economy.

The political consensus needed to reform our higher education is, lamentably, years away. Until that consensus is reached, however, Congress should do what it can to make sure the current system doesn’t become worse. Unfortunately, the latest changes to federal student aid programs, in addition to being negligently implemented, actively punish families with more than one child, an ill-advised policy at a time when the nation’s fertility rate is already falling.