[M]ark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at the think tank Demos, who focuses on student debt, says “we’ll see more and more” programs like Mission Scholarships. “There’s everything right with an institution looking at a labor market shortage” and trying to ameliorate it. “Free education is an obvious carrot.” [...]
In a broader sense, the replication of programs like UCR’s could also help jump start the economy, given that so many young people are hobbled by student debt. Medical graduates’ “ability so save money and spend money are constrained,” policy analyst Huelsman says. Should recent graduates be able to get out from under their massive debt load, they’ll sooner be able to start families, and buy homes and cars. Of course, the ability to replicate it is in doubt at a time of reduced funding for public education. There’s a reason, after all, that the Mission Scholars are funded privately, and not by the UC system.
