President Obama declares war on college costs

President Barack Obama in January 2012. (File) / Getty Images/Jewel Samad

COMMENTARY President Barack Obama is turning up the heat on colleges and universities.

The president wants these institutions to get serious about making college affordable. Of course, politicians and presidents have been lamenting for years that college tuition continues to outstrip the rate of inflation rate and nothing has happened.

Here, however, is what's heartening this time around: Mr. Obama appears to have the guts to do something besides grumble about runaway college costs. The president, after all, has a track record. His administration has already gone after the private student loan industry and for-profit universities and achieved meaningful changes. The administration has also been pushing aggressively for much-needed reform in the nation's K-12 systems through its Race for the Top competition among states.

Getting the hidebound higher-ed industry to change will take more than just a pretty please. It will require money. Or rather the threat of withholding money. And, in that regard, the federal government is in a position of power. The feds pump billions of dollars into private and public colleges and universities through grants, loans and tax credits. Last year, the government's tab was $167 billion.

Carrot and stick

The administration is proposing that some federal aid would be contingent on schools keeping their prices reasonable and providing good value. Schools that enrolled more low-income students, generated higher graduation rates and documented good job placement rates would be rewarded with more federal aid for student loans and other programs. The slackers would come up short.

What's impressive about Mr. Obama's effort is that he is not just interested in lowering costs. He is demanding more affordable prices and better outcomes.

"We should push colleges to do better," Obama said in a speech at the University of Michigan. "We hold them accountable if they don't."

College naysayers

Predictably, college administrators and their industry groups are doing their "sky is falling" routine. These are the same characters, who congratulate themselves if they limit yearly tuition increases to only 4% or 5%.

If Obama thought the student loan and for-profit university industries were tough adversaries, he hasn't seen anything yet.

All I can say is, good luck.

[cmonster67]

The President should realize that as long as the Feds are guaranteeing student loans, there is no incentive for colleges to lower the cost of education. As long as the Government is in the middle of the system, schools do not need to compete with one another and no need to find ways to find more cost effective ways to educate students.

Also, The President needs to get an understanding of the Government's 90/10 rule which forces for-profit schools to raise tuition in order to continue receiving government support. The President and the sheep who follow him need to get educated on how the system works against us.

[SaveRMiddle]

As with all things Obama..... Show me, don't tell me.

[sjc_1]

"He is demanding more affordable prices and better outcomes."

The same can be said for health care. Costs are their concern, prices are our concern. Reward based on results that help the most people in the best way.

[studentloanjustice]

Obama and his administration have been intolerably weak, and badly misguided on this issue from the get-go. Accomplishments claimed in this article are crap. Gainful employment will do NOTHING. NADA.

Obama needs to fight to return the standard consumer protections that should have never been stripped away from student loans. Until that happens, the cost of college will do nothing but continue to increase.

ps. "College Affordability" is a trick term. When you see it, you are soon to be inundated with beltway gimmickry.