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Newbury College is another casualty of our runaway student loan dependence

Newbury College in Brookline will be shutting down after the spring semester.Michael Swensen for The Boston Globe

The higher-education financial model and its reliance on student debt is to blame for the failure of Newbury College (“Struggling Newbury College to close in spring,” Page One, Dec. 15). Nationally, $1.5 trillion of student borrowing is a subsidy to colleges that encourages them to boost expenditures. It prompts these institutions to increase tuitions to such high levels that families are turned off. Like all colleges, Newbury had no choice but to provide bigger and bigger discounts to their stated tuition in order to attract students.

The student loan subsidy also creates unhealthy competition among colleges to provide unsustainable levels of student amenities, such as elaborate food service and high-end athletic facilities. Even our big colleges suffer from this malady.

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In Boston, we act surprised at the closures of Wheelock (which merged with Boston University), Mount Ida, and Newbury, all in one year. This will become commonplace as we have many more small colleges to go. Failure is a natural and even healthy process of capitalism. However, our national economy depends on finding a solution to student loans, the root of the problem. The overdependence on student loans is eating away at the finances of colleges, big and small. We better find a cure before this infection hurts us all.

Bob Hildreth

Boston

The writer is the founder of three nonprofits working on making college affordable for low-income students.