Performance-Based Crowdfunding of Public Higher Education: A Populist Proposal

New populism is a response to the power and wealth imbalance manifested today, which may be termed elitism. Elitism reflects two forms – private sector elitism (the capital-owning class garnering an ever-increasing share of wealth creation) and public sector elitism (administrators of public institutions facing little accountability for the results of their resource allocation decisions). Public higher education, created to mitigate this elitism, is often perceived to amplify it. However, income share agreements (ISAs) offer an alternative way to fund higher education. This entry advocates a proposal that would mitigate both public and private sector elitism – performance-based crowdfunding. Public colleges could underwrite ISAs for their own student graduates, paid by the students’ future employers, while workers could make investments in the colleges of their choice. Because all workers are investors, this proposal could be instrumental to rebuilding the capital-owning democracy.