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For Jackson Toby, our country's system of financial aid is remarkably similar to the housing bubble that led to the latest recession after it burst two years ago.

"We persuaded people that they could have very nice homes that they owned by giving them mortgages with no down payment, no evidence of jobs, and insufficient income. And what happened when the bubble collapsed? They were in a terrible situation," Toby told The Jewish State in a phone interview. "Well, that's exactly the same thing that has happened to some students who do not really get what they thought they would get out of college."

As indicated by the subtitle of his new book "The Lowering of Higher Education in America: Why Financial Aid Should Be Based on Student Performance," Toby, professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University and a Jewish resident of Highland Park, thinks our federal financial aid system, based upon need as opposed to merit, is fundamentally flawed.

"By changing the way we structure the financial aid system, we can have more students who are the kind of students who will benefit personally and benefit society going to college and completing college," he said.

Today, too many students entering one of the nation's 3,400 colleges and universities are ill-prepared for the rigors of higher education, Toby said. Most of those students, furthermore, cannot afford the rising costs of tuition and must borrow to cover the expense of college.

"So the question is: How are those loans dispensed?" Toby said.

Federal loan packages, he said, are given "promiscuously for anyone who is asking for it and managed to enroll at college." He noted, moreover, that most colleges and universities are not selective with regard to whom they admit since in order to fill their seats and remain financially solvent they must maintain relatively low admission standards.

While acknowledging that parental encouragement and supervision are the most important factors in determining a child's academic success, financial aid based upon need does not provide enough of an incentive for students to work hard in high school, college, and beyond.

"My point is not that American students are lazy or drink too much, or even that they don't study enough," he explained. "It is how can we give them an incentive to be more studious."

If students understand from an early age that financial aid was based on academic performance, "they would start working seriously in high school and continue in college," he said.

"I'm saying I'd like them to work hard all through high school and college if they want the benefits of education," Toby said. "The primary benefit is not to be a contributor to civic society so much has it is to obtain well-paid and interesting occupations."

While under such a merit-based system fewer students may end up going to college, Toby said that that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Toby, who taught at Rutgers for 50 years, divided students into "serious" and "frivolous" ones, the latter he characterized as "warm bodies sitting around or not even coming to class and thinking that's enough."

It is the serious students, he said, that he wants to see more of.

"If they're not going to be serious students, it would be better for them not to go," he said, adding that it wouldn't be a "tragedy" if those students instead chose to become electricians, plumbers, or another type of skilled worker that pay on average as well as the careers of college graduates.

"We are misleading students as to what higher education means," Toby said of the consequence of our current system. "And if they knew what it meant, some would be willing to undertake it in a serious way, and others wouldn't."

With his new book, Toby hopes not merely to reach his academic colleagues or even a general audience.

"My audience, this may seem grandiose, is the president, the House of Representatives, and the Senate," he said. "I'm really not attempting to get a bestseller; I'm attempting to influence public policy."