This time it’s Maine. The state is going to begin a program of forgiving student indebtedness for those who will stay and work in the state. Inside Higher Ed has the story.

Will this help the state’s economy? No. Those students who have really good job prospects elsewhere will go elsewhere. Those who don’t will gladly take the subsidy to their education, which is transferred to the taxpayers in general.

Politically attractive gimmicks like this won’t do anything to improve a state’s economy. The policy that will work — cutting taxes and axing regulations that make a state unappealing to business — is not politically cool and runs into stiff egalitarian opposition.