The increasing importance of elite higher education is a symptom of "political capitalism" in which success is determined by political connections rather than by the satisfaction of consumer preferences in the marketplace.
In their war on "monopolies," Progressives like Elizabeth Warren show they don't understand the history of anti-monopoly legislation, and they also don't understand that modern day "monopolies" aren't really monopolies at all.
Hard-left "democratic socialists" think they figured out how to make government planning possible: use prices. But there's a problem in their argument: prices are impossible without markets.
Besides national defense, no government-provided service enjoys as much exemption from scrutiny as the provision and subsidization of primary public education.