Obama eyes transparency, value at U.S. colleges

In this Feb. 13, 2012 file photo, President Obama speaks at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va. / AP

WASHINGTON - Access to college has been the driving force in federal higher education policy for decades. But the Obama administration is pushing a fundamental agenda shift that aggressively brings a new question into the debate: What are people getting for their money?

Students with loans are graduating on average with more than $25,000 in debt. The federal government pours $140 billion annually into federal grants and loans. Unemployment remains high, yet there are projected shortages in many industries with some high-tech companies already complaining about a lack of highly trained workers.

Meanwhile, literacy among college students has declined in the last decade, according to a commission convened during the George W. Bush administration that said American higher education has become "increasingly risk-averse, at times self-satisfied, and unduly expensive." About 40 percent of college students at four-year schools aren't graduating, and in two-year programs, only about 40 percent of students graduate or transfer, according to the policy and analysis group College Measures.

College drop-outs are expensive, and not just for the individual. About a fifth of full-time students who enroll at a community college do not return for a second year, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to an analysis released last fall by the American Institutes for Research.

There's been a growing debate over whether post-secondary schools should be more transparent about the cost of an education and the success of graduates. President Barack Obama has weighed in with a strong "yes."

During his State of the Union address, Obama put the higher education on notice: "If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down," he said. "Higher education can't be a luxury- it's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford."

Video: State of the Union address in full

He wants to slightly reduce federal aid for schools that don't control tuition costs and shift it to those that do. He also has proposed an $8 billion program to train community college students for high-growth industries that would provide financial incentives to programs that ensured their trainees find work. Both proposals need congressional approval.

At the same time, the administration is developing both a "scorecard" for use in comparing school statistics such as graduation rates as well as a "shopping sheet" students would receive from schools they applied to with estimates of how much debt they might graduate with and estimated future payments on student loans.

American's higher education system has long been the backbone of much of the nation's success, and there's no doubt that a college degree is valuable. It's now projected that students with a bachelor's degree will earn a million more dollars over their lifetime than students with only a high school diploma, Education Secretary Arne Duncan says.

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[js2212]

by leftyintexas February 21, 2012 9:50 AM EST
Obama didn't lie about anything. You need to find another news source besides listening to Rush Limbaugh.
________________________________________________________________

LOL sounds like you just gobble up whatever cookies they feed you over in Lefty-ville there lefty. Maybe you should stop listening to Rush. I don't know what all he is sayin that has you in a lather but apparently you listen to him enough to know. Me, I just research the facts and think for myself. I don't listen to BS talk radio from either side. Maybe you should do the same.

[doncasteel8587]

Please sign my petition to the President of the United States here:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/eliminate-interest-federal-education-loans/DkzQ7lFg

It is critical that the United States maintain the highest level of education for our people. The single most important step to achieving this goal is to make higher education affordable. . Eliminating interest on student and parent PLUS loans, would reduce the burden on students and families. At the current rate of 7.9% over 20 years a $20,000 loan costs $39,850 to pay back, nearly doubling the cost of education.

There is no reasonable justification for charging interest on Federal Education Loans.

[achememnon]

The divide between liberal and conservative is becoming more and more wider and that is the worse thing for America being that we all are Americans. This hatred for one another will eventually be our undoing not any President. America will crumble from the inside because we are to strong for anybody to really take us out for the outside and if we don't believe that our men and women of the Armed service fought and died for liberal and conservative to have the right to believe as they do, then you are an enemy of this country and want to see it fall. Either we live up to the ideals that is suppose to make America great or we keep pointing finger at one another like children and we will never solve any of out problems.

[RobAla]

Transparency? Wow, President Obama shouldn't remind voters of that subject. Candidate Barrack Obama promised the most transparent federal government for his administration. President Obama has been anything but transparent.

1) He lied 8 times in promises to televise the health care discussions openly on CSPAN. It never happened.
2) Republican members of Congress (who were medical doctors tried to meet with President Obama on health care, but President Obama did not have the time. Instead, President Obama meet with union bosses behind closed doors and made deals giving one premium health care plan to union members (supporters) and another to the rest of the country.
3) The President's man, AG Holder, refuses to hand over all the documents required by Congress in it's investigation over "Fast and Furious" - the program that sold guns to Mexican cartels, guns used to kill a US border agent.
4) On a more personal level, President Obama still has never even released his college transcripts.

President Obama has been anything but transparent, and he has no credibility to lecture others on the subject.

[BlameRepublicanz]

i saw plenty of health care discussions on CSPAN...Obama met with Republican leaders PLENTY of times during the health care debate...you are a pathetic liar.

[aChangeOfIdeas]

statistics are deceiving, he wants to micromanage schools from the oval office, it doesn't work that way. A low graduation rate might mean the school gives more people a shot at an education... some embrace it and some don't. Of course schools like Harvard have a high graduation rate, they only admit 7% of applicants and those are highly motivated applicants. If the local community college admits 97% of applicants you can bet some of them aren't going to make it, that's life. They choose other paths. Not every college drop-out is a failure, it just means they chose another path, or ran out of money. You can't have it both ways, give more people a chance at education means you're not going to have as high graduation rates.