Recent economic research suggests that colleges siphon off a significant portion of federal education aid rather than lowering costs to students

President Barack Obama has been on a tour of college campuses touting proposals to lower student loan repayments for college graduates. He hopes to rekindle the enthusiasm of young voters, who in 2008 favored him over Sen. John McCain by more than two-to-one.

Ironically, these same young Americans...

The number of schools ranked highly in guides such as Barron's Profiles of American Colleges is increasing, without any evidence that these schools' instructional quality is also increasing. Applicants and their families should be wary of letting these rankings serve as the main criteria in their college decisions.

When an imperious bully like Fidel Castro starts to fear, his instinct is to try to sow fear among his enemies. Today, with his student and benefactor, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, dying of cancer, what the Cuban dictator fears most is that his bankrupt regime in Havana is about to lose billions in critical aid and oil.

No, the government shouldn’t eliminate tax breaks for private universities.

An AEI survey found that when asked to think of the cost for a low-income student, a majority of parents do recognize a distinction between sticker price and “net price after aid.” Yet, low-income parents often tend to overestimate the net price of college attendance.

President Obama’s latest ploy is a student lending policy that teaches a new generation of college-goers that government is there to provide free stuff.

The federal government can and should play a limited but important role in helping the nation address the challenge of  improving the productivity of education spending.