Distribution Double Bind: On the Ethical Implications of “How”†

When weighing how much aid we should give, policymakers also wonder: how should the state distribute that aid? Issues of implementation and feasibility are, after all, an essential component of policy decision-making and effectiveness. Yet, when philosophers of education consider the ethical trade-offs between these postsecondary policies, few have incorporated these considerations into their accounts. In this article, I seek to advance the larger project that questions of implementation and feasibility pose discrete problems of justice that are therefore worth considering when philosophers weigh the trade-offs between pursuing different postsecondary options. I do this through introducing one such problem within this much wider anticipated genre: the problem of what I call “the distribution double bind” when pursuing means-tested financial aid in the United States. I argue that the distribution double bind arises when the available options to distribute a given benefit — in this case, financial aid via the FAFSA — are either meaningfully coarse or meaningfully fine. I contend this new dilemma generates distinct ethical concerns that are relevant to our philosophical considerations of how the state should fund higher education.