The endowments would run out instantly. And you would destroy great research institutions. Some people just enjoy destruction

It’s not about destruction but equity. Tax-funded student loans should not be used to grow endowments and should be sequestered. Let donors fund the endowments if they care about the research institutions. Return the people’s money to the people.

Donors do fund endowments. The schools most dependent on tuition have very small endowments. You don’t seem to know anything about this

Are you saying that no tuition backed by student loans ends up in endowment funds?

Pretty much. Tuition is set by willingness to pay. Most large endowments are actually thousand of small endowments that are earmarked for certain things. Also many of the largest endowments are actually used for giving large financial aid. On principle its not of your business where private endowments come from. The government can of course stop giving loans to anyone and everyone for any amount.

I don't care about private endowments, that's the business of donors. There does seem to be conflicting opinions on whether tax money (student loans) flows into endowments and, if so, that should be immediately shut down.

Almost all endowment increases come from donors and stock market gains. Harvard spends 5+ percent of their endowment per year. It would be trivial if it was happening to prevent tuition going to endowments since tuition is a small fraction of spending at rich universities. Your weird obsession will do nothing to lower costs

Endowments increase the amount that can be spent. All universities spend all the tuition. Feel free to block tuition from going into endowments; doesn’t matter. https://thedailytexan.com/2019/03/08/ut-now-has-the-second-l... Here is interesting journalism

I'll take a look at the article. If tuition and tax money aren't going into endowments, then I don't really have a problem. To date, whenever I would bring this topic up, it was pretty quickly shut down, which always gets my spidey sense going. The problem of increasing tuition costs is a whole topic in its own right but I think we are also on the verge of bursting the education bubble in general, so that will have an impact.

Unfortunately physical metaphors about “bursting bubbles” don’t correspond to reality. People at 18 and their parents are scared to DEATH of failure. They WILL pay exorbitant tuition at any decent university

> They WILL pay exorbitant tuition at any decent university

That may be true but I still think we're headed for a big correction in education long term, both economically and in terms of cultural influence.

Not sure how it's a weird obsession to want to know how tax dollars are being spent on universities, especially given the OP. Do you have something to back up what you are asserting, that endowments are not funded (directly or indirectly) by student loans?

This is like saying a public school teacher can't buy a cigarette because his money actually came from "taxpayer funds".

The moment the money enters the teachers account it is no longer taxpayer money. The same is the case for the university. How they spend the tuitions is entirely upto them.

Take an economics course.

Which economics course explains the workings of endowment funds at elite schools and the flow of money from student loans?

Ya, framing the student loan crisis as "forgiving all student loans" is just silly. Go after the predatory loan companies and the colleges that accepted the loan money. Claw it back from colleges that have been egregiously overcharging while lying about things like the average salary of graduates from whatever program.