February 22, 2010 10:44AM # Arne Duncan Embraces False Friedman By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) --- SHARE In a shocking development, U.S. Secretary of Arne Duncan [embraced the ideas of Milton Friedman](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arne-duncan/move-our-money-from-banks_b_471038.html) today, championing the funding of students instead of schools! Unfortunately, it was in the context of higher education — Duncan and his boss have done all they can to [destroy school choice ](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10254)elsewhere — and he completely misrepresented what Friedman said about higher ed, suggesting that the Nobel Laureate somehow endorsed the federal Direct Loan Program: > We will end the loans under the Federal Family Education Program and make them directly to students — just as economist Milton Friedman proposed 50 years ago, and just as the Department of Education has been doing since 1993 through the Direct Loan Program. ![Media Name: 201002_blog_mccluskey31.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/201002_blog_mccluskey31.jpg?itok=lVXwpkhG) Were Milton Friedman still with us, I think he would be pretty miffed with Duncan. For one thing, 50 years ago there was no Federal Family Education Loan Program. Moreover, assuming Duncan is referring to Friedman’s “[The Role of Government in Education](http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/fried1.htm),” Friedman was clearly stating that if there is going to be any higher education aid it should go to students, not schools. And then there’s this: > The resulting system would follow in its broad outlines the arrangements adopted in the United States after World War II for financing the education of veterans, *except that the funds would presumably come from the States rather than the Federal government* \[italics added\]. It’s bad enough that Duncan and his boss reject Friedman’s very [wise and proven counsel ](https://www.cato.org/pubs/articles/coulson_comparing_public_private_market_schools_jsc.pdf)when it comes to elementary and secondary education. It’s even worse that Duncan then has the gall to blatantly lie about what Friedman wrote in an effort to sell a [rotten and costly piece of federal legislation](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10596), the laughably titled Student Aid and Fiscal Repsonsibility Act. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).