In this Freeman piece, SUNY-Purchase economics professor Sandy Ikeda looks at the connection between federal subsidies for students and both the burgeoning cost of college and the surfeit of graduates who are working in low-skill jobs. He argues that interest rates on government loans ought to rise, and while that isn’t wrong, it neglects a key element — risk. There shouldn’t be a single interest rate on student loans any more than there should be a single rate on business loans. Some business ventures entail huge risk; others little. The same is true for students, even though it’s more difficult to estimate. That is one reason why we ought to leave educational finance to the private sector. Government officials are never going to care about accurate risk assessment since they’re not putting their own money at risk.