The Mother of All Lawsuits (MOAL)

On April 13, 2017, President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of a Massive Ordnance Airdrop Blast – more popularly known as “The Mother of All Bombs (MOAB) – on a tunnel complex used by the Islamic State terrorists along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The MOAB is an intimidating ordnance – it is/was the largest non-nuclear weapon in anyone’s arsenal.

It did its job which was two-fold. First, the effects of the blast penetrated the caves and tunnels being used by the terrorist – killing many and destroying the structure of those caves and tunnels. Second, and probably more important, it showed the Islamic terrorists worldwide that there was a new sheriff in town and that he was prepared to use maxim force – a marked contracts with the administration of his predecessor President Barack Obama who at the time was vying to replace former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as the leading – and wrong-headed – advocate for using appeasement in dealing with international rogues.

Sometimes it takes a bold gesture to convince others that you are done being a patsy. As Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) has said and I paraphrase: “First, you get mad – damn mad – and then you count to ten but hit them in the nose when you get to eight. And if he tries to get up, hit him again as hard as you can.” It changes people’s perception. Not only as to you but as to other people who may just respond similarly.

Which brings me to the point of this column. The federal government – particularly successive administrations in league with Congress – has been lining the pockets of the nation’s colleges and universities with student loans and grants given out with little, if any, regard to the ability of the students to repay the loans. They’ve been a patsy to the educational establishment. Look carefully at the situation.

The nation’s colleges and universities – together with the educational elites* in Congress and the federal bureaucracy – have been preaching that you need a college education to get ahead in life. Nothing could be further from the truth. But so relentless was the educational establishment, supported by the members of Congress and the leadership of successive administrations, that the lie became accepted as the truth. So much so that Congress decided that it should provide the financial means for everyone to fulfill their illusions. Thus the student loan process. Loans available to virtually any student with a vague promise to repay over an extended period of time commencing after completion of school – whether by graduation or resignation. Not a thought was given to whether the degree to be pursued was capable of providing income to repay the loan. So bad did it get that colleges and universities began to manufacture areas of pursuit – gender studies, art history, studies, theater arts, etc. It’s not that subject matter is necessarily nonsense. As often as not it is that the market place has such a low demand, while the course matter is so easy, that students overwhelm the availability of jobs. Years ago there was a study in Oregon that found that an overwhelming number of manual laborers in the restaurants and hotels/motels possessed baccalaureate and post graduate degrees – nothing that was required to wait tables, wash dishes, clean rooms or change linens. It should have been an early warning but it was completely ignored.

But imaginary degrees, easy classes, and a constant drumbeat of “success through college” continue to feed the fire. With more students came more professors, which in turn required more administrative staff, which encouraged more “creative but pointless” areas of study. It was a house of cards – a paradise for snake oil salesmen. It was an illusion only realized after the money was spend and the debt incurred,

When Congress finally realized what it had done they were at a loss. The debt was mounting and the ability to pay was deteriorating. The Democrats turned to their preferred solution for everything – spend more money. Joe Biden decided the easiest thing was loan forgiveness which was highly unpopular in Congress but he did it anyway and was turned away by the courts at every instance. The effect of loan forgiveness was to place an extraordinary debt burden on an already strained budget buried in other foolishness while leaving the real culprits untouched and enjoying the handsome salaries and benefits as teachers and administrators. The Republicans – rigid as usual – had no solution.

Mr. Trump – a bona fide free form thinker – should consider alternative solutions that places the burden not on the taxpayers but rather on those who caused the crises in the first instance – the colleges and universities. I’ve never been a fan of class actions lawsuits but this is an instance that calls for effective litigation.

Mr. Trump should direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to institute a series of class action suits against individual colleges and university to recover the costs paid by students for tuition for baccalaureate and post graduate degrees in fields where the cost of the education paid exceeds the ability to repay the loans incurred. The federal government has standing to bring these suits because it is the guarantor for the loans but the standing would be enhanced by engaging a student who was victimized. Ms. Bondi and her attorneys can determine whether the lawsuits should be brought against each offending college or university and/or the department/school within the school. Start with the most egregious institutions and work your way down until succeeding institutions agree to settle rather than litigate.

The suits should be in amounts to satisfy existing student loans and free the victimized students from the debt. There will be an ancillary beneficial effect in that these institutions will have to cleanse their curriculum of worthless classes and degrees along with the professors and administrators benefiting from this long running ruse. Congress should be advised that future grants and payments to these universities should be limited and those funds redirected to vocational schooling to build a new cadre of students with skills that the market demands: i.e. plumbers, electricians, low voltage electricians, welders, and the myriad of healthcare workers that can perform significant functions that free the doctors, nurses and others for the critical health care needs.

Will this cure the problem? Not all of it but it will certainly mitigate the financial strain and encourage institutions to train students to perform jobs that the market requires. In the end think of it in simple terms – how many people with gender study degrees does a community need versus plumbers, or electricians, or welders, or X-ray technicians. And which of those callings makes the community better as a whole?

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*The overwhelming majority of Congressional members have college decrees. A disproportionate number have law degrees. Neither is required to qualify for the office. In many instances, even with those degrees, particular members of Congress would be unemployable in the private sector. Remember being a member of Congress does not require a demonstrable skill, a checklist of accomplishment, or even a reasoned solution for the nation’s problems. It simply requires getting elected which is often obtained by promising the electorate everything, delivering nothing and blaming the lack of progress on “some other guy/gal.”