Free tuition will not solve the problem of pricey education

livemint.com:

One morning late last month, the financial futures of hundreds of medical students in the Bronx, New York, changed forever. A gift of $1 billion from Ruth Gottesman, a former professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and chair of its board of trustees, will make the school tuition-free in perpetuity. The donation, one of the largest in US higher education history, is an act of generosity that will undoubtedly improve life for Einstein’s students and potentially benefit the surrounding community, one of America’s poorest.

It also highlights how much US colleges and universities rely on wealthy donors—and raises the question of whether more systemic changes would better serve students and society. I’m under no illusions about how hard that change would be. When the federal government attempts to forgive or cancel student loan debt, there is an outcry.

This includes Republican attempts to end the Public Service Loan Forgiveness programme for new borrowers, which requires 10 years of work in exchange for forgiving remaining debt. This is in a nation whose citizens rely on friends, neighbours, relatives and perfect strangers on the internet, on sites such as GoFundMe and ModestNeeds, to help pay for such things as rebuilding after a natural disaster, educational debt or medical expenses. Relying on the kindness of strangers in the wake of a tragedy is not a new phenomenon, of course.

Yet the sheer proliferation of requests for help is an indicator of gaping holes in America’s social safety nets. Some 30 million people gave or received help on GoFundMe in 2023, according to the company’s 2023 Giving Report. It’s important to reiterate that gifts such as Gottesman’s deserve to be celebrated, as was New York University’s