Republican Mitt Romney, at a campaign stop Wednesday in Iowa, proposed linking the amount of federal college aid for students to the careers they’re seeking. You can read the Associated Press story here.

According to the AP account, Romney said he liked the idea of linking the amount of financial aid with the “contributions” students will make to society. However, he provided no details on which career paths would be linked to greater financial aid and whose contributions would count more than others.

How much financial aid would a teacher’s contribution be worth? Or a scientist’s? Or an art historian’s? The education portion of his campaign Web site doesn’t shed any more light on this idea. A lot of value judgments would have to enter into his proposal, if he’s serious about it.