President Obama’s Plan Aims to Lower Cost of College

[JustAnotherGen]

This is posted in BOG Group

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/education/obamas-plan-aims-to-lower-cost-of-college.html?pagewanted=all

NY Time obtained a draft of the proposal - which is causing agita amongst colleges. The plan is to rate universities/colleges before the 2015 school year on specific measures as follows:

Tuition
Graduation rates
Debt (student loans)
Earnings of graduates
Percentage of lower-income students who attend

These ratings then get ranked against peer institutions with the intent of basing Federal Financial Aid to students attending these colleges partly on the college's rank.

Subject to Congressional Approval of course . . .

“All the things we’re measuring are important for students choosing a college,” a senior administration official said. “It’s important to us that colleges offer good value for their tuition dollars, and that higher education offer families a degree of security so students aren’t left with debt they can’t pay back.”

Mr. Obama hopes that starting in 2018, the ratings would be tied to financial aid, so that students at highly rated colleges might get larger federal grants and more affordable loans. But that would require new legislation.

“I think there is bipartisan support for some of these ideas, as we’ve seen in states where the governors have been working on them,” said the administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to disclose information not yet made public.

Ohio, Tennessee and Indiana have made moves toward linking aid to educational outcomes. But in the divisive Congressional atmosphere, it is not clear how much backing there would be for such proposals.

I sat at a college graduation party the last weekend of July - and was saddened (though not shocked) to hear that none of these Kean University graduates were coming out of University with less than 60K in student loans - as a starting point.

I know it relies on Congressional support - but it's a good start to helping those most reliant on financial aid out.

[Cha]

1. Mahalo, Gen! Bravo to the President's Plan to lower College tuition

and let's hope we get a better Congress in 2014!

BOG

[mcar]

2. My youngest will be graduating hs in 2015

I am all for this. Kudos to PO for addressing this.