Rick Perry to college students: "Get in, get out and into workforce"

(CBS News) Last year, Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked Texas Universities to offer low-cost degrees for $10,000 or less and he recently proposed a four-year tuition freeze for incoming Texas freshmen. Perry joined "CBS This Morning" Wednesday to discuss the rising cost of tuition and the issue of college accessibility in his home state and across the country.

While Perry said the cost of college remains low in Texas, compared to other states, the cost of attending college in Texas has increased by an estimated 55 percent in the past 10 years in the state.

Perry spoke about his challenge to universities to offer $10,000 degrees. "Over the course of the last year we've had 10 different institutions that have taken the challenge," he said, reiterating what he calls the importance of "putting in place a program where a young person knows they have the stability of getting a college degree for $10,000."

His strategy behind the four-year tuition freeze is to provide "stability and predictability to the young person and their family" and to add an "incentive to really be focused and finish up in four years," he said, citing the statistic that "only 30 percent of our college students are graduating in a four-year period of time." Perry said he wants student to "get in, get your studies done, get out and get into the workforce."

Turning to other big news out of his home state, the Texas governor touched on the current case before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding race-based admission criteria at the University of Texas. He said "The bigger issue for me is are you going to have a diverse population in our universities," but stopped short of taking sides, saying "the Supreme Court is going to decide" whether the University of Texas is in the right.