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How dare federal government lecture anyone else on debt?

THE GLOBE’S Aug. 24 editorial, “Obama rightly prods higher ed, but beware of flawed ‘scoring,’ ” addresses President Obama’s latest proposal directed toward a “crisis in higher education” that results when “too many students enroll, take on enormous debt, and then fail to graduate.” The administration will rely on Congress to develop a scoring system that might “encourage colleges and universities to explore cost-effective innovations.”

Seriously? Would that be the Congress whose approval rate is at an all-time low and whose major contributions these days have been to the late-night comics? It seems ironic that a government so woefully in debt perceives itself equal to the role of either advising or judging others.

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The editorial views “developing a credible system for measuring college quality” as a “worthy learning experiment.” I’d suggest that a more worthy use of resources would be for the White House to find ways to collect on more of the $1 trillion in outstanding loans.

A plethora of catalogs have been published regarding statistics on colleges and universities. I have faith in the ability of parents and students to read, assess, and make decisions without government intervention. As for the aforementioned crisis, enormous debt should be a sufficient prod to hit the books and avoid failure.

Janet Glitzenstein
Nantucket