Obama Proposes Steps To Keep Tuition Down

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is proposing to keep college affordable by yanking federal aid from colleges that don't keep tuition down and provide good value.

Obama also called on Congress Tuesday to keep interest rates down on subsidized federal student loans. And he wants to make more work-study jobs available for students who are paying their own tuition.

As he has in the past, Obama asked Congress to permanently extend a tuition tax credit that pays up to $10,000 over four years.

The proposals came as part of Obama's State of the Union address, which focused on boosting economic opportunity. Part of Obama's argument focuses on the need to keep college within reach for middle-class families. He'll discuss college affordability in greater detail during a trip to Michigan on Friday.

The 10 Most Expensive Colleges

Loading Slideshow

• Columbia University, $45,290

• Vassar College $44,705

• Trinity College $44,070

• St. John's College $44,056

• Connecticut College $43,990

• Bucknell University $43,866

• Bard College at Simon's Rock $43,840

• Wesleyan University (CT) $43,674

• Tulane University $43,434

• Carnegie Mellon University $43,396

Comments

[Paula A Argento]

07:04 PM on 01/29/2012

We need to start training young people for success and prosperity in high school and junior high as they do in many European countries, and give affordable means to obtaining key executive skills. I do this in my book, previewable at www.avoidthelawschooltrap.com which has a career skill and guide that should be read by pre-college and college students as well as their parents, even if they are not considering law school.

(The same problem exists with law schools as colleges- free flowing federal student loans and a naive mythology about law practice has recurringly resulted in over supply of lawyers and "unhireability" in recessionary economies. The trouble is that guidance counselors and advisors are unknowledgeable and perpetuate the mythology of the "can't lose" higher education system).

[J R M]

01:44 AM on 01/27/2012

It is the states cutting funds to state universities and public colleges that is primarily driving the increase in tuition at those institutions.

[michelv]

02:53 AM on 01/29/2012

True for those institutions, but not for private ones who are being subsidized by taxpayer funded loans. Since I graduated from college, inflation should have only at most doubled tuition. instead, tuition has gone up by a factor of about 4.3. So it has increased at more than twice the inflation rate. This is BS and unsustainable.

[Xoubuo]

01:38 AM on 01/26/2012

One thing I think Obama should have done is do a no college student left behind bill. By rewarding colleges with extra federal aid to colleges that have a high graduation rate and have innovative ways that successfully to get their students to graduate on time and cut through the red tape. Even punish colleges that don't get college students to graduate on time, by cutting their federal aid in Half or in worse cases, eliminate it all together. That way colleges and universities have incentives to push for higher graduation rates and push for innovative ways of getting college students to graduate on time.

[isis]

10:22 PM on 01/25/2012

And yet the very expensive schools get the most applicants and those admitted chose to go there.

[Marx Twain]

04:16 PM on 01/25/2012

Obama, like so many other politicians, ignores the causes and only addresses the symptoms. College tuition has skyrocketed, but this has happened at the same time that states have cut funds for higher education. When colleges and universities don't get public funding, they need to raise tuition rates to make up the difference.

[michelv]

02:54 AM on 01/29/2012

And what about private universities?

[SkreetGil1]

04:14 PM on 01/25/2012

I went to college. Jr college first got an AA. Got pell grants and worked part time. Did not owe a thing.

Then went to 4 year college. Got pell grants, won a scholarship, and took out a loan for $2500 in senior year for my non paid internship.

Took me a few years to pay back the $2500. It was tough.

But that's all I owed.

Why can't we do this today for our kids.

[hopein2012]

02:51 AM on 01/27/2012

that is awesome that you graduated with only 2500 in debt

[Mystic01]

02:44 PM on 01/25/2012

I work for a public university and know full well how universities have cut costs, budgets, and often services and programs in the face of declining support. We are through cutting fat; we're now cutting muscle and bone, but still we're told to cut more, even though we're short-staffed and packing more students than ever into courses. None of this serves the students, who are paying more for less. It all falls back on state support for the schools.

[iHELP Loans]

01:12 PM on 01/25/2012

Agree with Christina - those numbers are scary. However it's important to remember that with aid and scholarship, it can often and up being significantly lower.

[christina eh]

12:48 PM on 01/25/2012

Wow, seeing those numbers shocks me over and over again ! How can it be that college/university costs sooo much in the US ?! I mean seriously - look at this ?! That's insane.
The only "tuition" I have to pay is about 17€ per term and that's for the official Austrian representation of university students and additionally I have to pay 50€ per term to my university college because it's a private university. I'm gonna do a year abroad in Sweden, starting in August this year, and thanks to the European Commission of Education and Training and their ERASMUS programme I will get financial aid which I never have to pay back. I won't be having any student loan when finished with my studies. And I also have the oppurtunity to do my master's degree in Scotland for free as well because of my university. And that's exactly the way it should be for everyone, everywhere. Education should be affordable even for the poorest of the poorest ! But we all know that it's never gonna be that way. This makes me sad and furious at the same time.

[tabaqui]

01:42 PM on 01/25/2012

I don't know why it's so hard for the US to get with the program - other countries, as you show us, are making education free or super-affordable, and have been doing it for decades - why do WE have to be the country that hobbles people with crippling debt?

Good luck in your uni career!

[vlgee]

06:44 PM on 01/25/2012

Because the people in those countries pay massive taxes. If you don't mind 70% of the money you work for going to the gov. so they can provide affordable education, we can have a system like that, too.

[Grogger]

11:11 AM on 01/26/2012

Because this country simply does not care for or invest in its people, they are simply "human resources" and objects to be exploited and discarded. It's all about efficiency and value, everything measured in economic terms. Those are the top genuinely despise and hate those they consider lower than themselves and have no qualms about letting them perish.

[hungryblackcat]

12:40 PM on 01/25/2012

I bet Sallie Mae is clicking their heels.

[flyingmonkey158]

12:38 PM on 01/25/2012

What about us that have already graduated, have a job and still struggle month to month paying down or debt?

[Marx Twain]

04:11 PM on 01/25/2012

We can go suck it, apparently. There are no incentives anymore to fly straight and play by the rules.

[BlackTom]

12:35 PM on 01/25/2012

Colleges raise tuition because states reduce support. Now Obama is threatening removal of federal support as well? The result will either be massive increases in tuition, or massive reduction in classes offered, and possibly the closing of campuses.

Talking tough is stupid. Look at the reasons for tuition increases. In every case it is due to reduction in state subsidies. Beef up federal allotments to the states, earmarked for higher ed, if you want to make a difference. Threats will just make things worse.

[Mystic01]

02:44 PM on 01/25/2012

Absolutely correct. Not a smart remark by Obama.

[SkreetGil1]

04:48 PM on 01/25/2012

He said all the "right" things...

But now will he do the right things?

I have doubts.

[Peyton Walker]

12:06 PM on 01/25/2012

This is still cheap and or equal compared to most for-profit colleges.

[FiredUpRTG]

11:58 AM on 01/25/2012

The presidents of those universities get paid more than the president of the United States — $500K or more. Columbia's makes $1.4 million. Sports coaches can be paid more than that.

[Lisa Shields]

11:49 AM on 01/25/2012

I get this.

NJ has cut student aid to zilch---and encourages its students to take loans from vendors like Discover Card...which is charging THIRTEEN percent for student loans. They have an AD on our state's education website. So Mr. Christie will have to stop ignoring the middle class...the REAL middle class who have under 80K a year...not his buddies, who make seven times as much.