The Supreme Court is considering the fate of President Biden’s student-loan cancellation plan. The economic significance of the case is obvious: If the court holds that it is lawful, it will transfer more than $400 billion from taxpayers to student borrowers. Even more significant is the foundational question at the heart of the debate: What privileges, if any, should higher education receive in a democratic society?
It’s a question that was once carefully considered by leading political and educational leaders, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower (who served as Columbia University’s president, 1948-53) and James Conant (Harvard’s president, 1933-53). The broader context of the mid-20th-century debate over educational privilege was student deferments from the military draft. It’s a useful analogy for today’s debate, and it illustrates how higher-education interests succeeded decades ago in creating a privileged place above the ordinary duties of American civic life.
The U.S. instituted the draft in 1940, more than a year before Congress declared war on Japan and Germany. FDR, who came out for the draft at the 1940 Democratic National Convention, championed universal military service by able-bodied males as an expression of national unity and democratic solidarity. On the day of the first draft lottery, Roosevelt read, with great fanfare, from letters written by Catholic, Jewish and Protestant leaders in support of conscription.