Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Cheap tuition and mobility

Remember what I was saying before about the problematic relationship between cheap tuition and education that enables professional mobility?

http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/elections-2012/357986/les-medecins-qui-quittent-le-quebec-doivent-rembourser-l-etat-dit-legault".>Yeah.

The system works fine if the education you offer doesn't enable high emigration to better professional opportunities.  (Or if you offer sufficient professional opportunities at home-- say, by licensing doctors who want to practice in under-served Montreal.)  But if you accidentally allow some part of the system to provide taxpayer-funded training to people who then emigrate in large numbers, then little things like freedom of movement become unattractive, notwithstanding (so to speak) any constitutional worries.