Too Far Inside

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Inside Higher ED—the content’s free, they’ve run some stuff I’ve written, and co-founder Doug Lederman has graciously moderated a Cato forum—but those guys have got to get outside of higher ed a little more. That, at least, is what I’m forced to conclude if they really believe the teaser they wrote today for an article about federal efforts to stave off an as-yet nonexistent student loan crisis:

As federal agencies formally unveil plan to avert student loan availability crisis, officials earn grudging credit from players across the political and student aid spectrum.

What exactly constitutes the “political spectrum”? Apparently, a group that ranges all the way from the president of the Career College Association—which lobbies for for-profit colleges—to liberal Rep. George Miller (D-CA), with the head of the Project on Student Debt and the CEO of Sallie Mae in between. It’s a spectrum that consists exclusively of the color blue: People who think Washington should be heavily involved in student aid and send federal money their way--except for Miller, who does the sending.

Obviously, in the real world that’s no political spectrum at all, but maybe when you deal exclusively with Washington and higher ed, you feel like that's a huge divide, indeed.