Obama College-Cost Plan Aims to Go Beyond Access

Excerpt from Alyson Klein's article.

President Barack Obama's aggressive basket of proposals aimed at helping college students get maximum value in the face of soaring tuition costs signals an economy-conscious shift in the administration's approach to higher education policy.

The Obama administration had focused mainly on access for those moving beyond the K-12 system—ensuring that students can cover the cost of college as more careers demand a postsecondary education. But the administration is now pushing a set of proposals that would steer a greater share of federal money to states—and institutions—that are able to graduate students and prepare them for the workforce.

For the administration, "quality has been assumed" up to now, said Kevin Carey, the policy director for Education Sector, a think tank in Washington. The latest proposals "mark a shift in federal policymaking," he said. "It sends a signal about the Obama administration's larger stance on the traditional education sector. ... They can't just keep jacking up tuition."

'Economic Imperative'

At a Capitol Hill hearing on the proposal last week, Martha Kanter, the undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education, urged members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to work with the administration on the package.

"Higher education has become an economic imperative," she said. "We're concerned that without immediate action the price of higher education will make it an unaffordable luxury for too many students."

As part of the package first rolled out in the State of the Union address Jan. 24, President Obama is pushing to make student outcomes—including graduation and retention rates—a factor in deciding how much campus-based federal financial aid each postsecondary institution receives.

Separately, he wants to create a $1 billion version of the administration's signature Race to the Top competitive-grant program to encourage states to keep up their spending on higher education and to make sure students graduate on time and get more bang for their bucks from their higher education systems. The president also would like to establish a separate, $55 million "First in the World" fund, to scale up promising practices, such as expanding the use of technology, at the college level...