Is A Simpler Mortgage Application Good Or Bad, If The House Isn’t Inspected?

A Simple Way to Help Financial Aid Do Its Job – NYTimes.com.

is by Susan Dynarski (whose previous article I have commented on) and Judith Scott-Clayton of Columtia Teachers College – a school I have had some problems with before.  I think it is important that I point that out, though I know nothing about the author, herself.  (See this post and this post about Columbia Teachers College.)

Here is my comment on this article.

“I’m afraid that this is a little like bankers making it easier for poor, naive home-buyers to fill out mortgage applications.

The new proposal could be – and may still be – a good idea. But only if it is coupled with careful scrutiny of the product the loan is being used for. That is what I – as a former professor who has seen horrors in higher education – advocate. The government doesn’t loan money for the purpose of buying a house, without an appraisal of the house. Why do they do this with colleges?”