Instapundit links to a National Review article about students' college plans for the fall.
The gap year is suddenly a hotter topic, as colleges face the possibility that the fall semester and maybe the entire 2020-21 academic year could be done remotely, or could face serious restrictions on campus educational, extracurricular, and social activities such as sports, science labs, theater, music, clubs, and parties. A McKinsey Consulting report warns that normal campus life may not return until the fall of 2021.What if close to half the kids are only there for the good times? In the absence of which, living at home and doing classwork on line may not appeal, and a fair number who don't continue will never finish.
ABC News reported that “Nearly one in six graduating seniors, according to a poll by the Baltimore-based Art & Science Group, now indicate that due to the coronavirus pandemic, they will likely revise their plans of attending a four-year college in the fall and take a gap year."
What happens if the richest students bail out? The entire economic model of campuses could be undermined, especially if nobody at all is paying room and board and there is no revenue to be had from athletic programs, while colleges are still paying for their sprawling real estate and the extensive bureaucratic overhead that supports modern campus life. (snip) Some schools on the margins may go out of business; others may finally face real pressure to trim back layers of administration and delay campus-life building projects.
This leaves them with large loans, no degree, and little way to ever repay. That worst-of-all-worlds predicament could elect a Bernie Sanders clone in 2024.
