President Barack Obama will announce a plan on Thursday to make college more affordable by creating a new college ranking system and linking those rankings to federal financial aid.
According to a draft of the proposal, the rankings will rate schools on their tuition, graduation rates, student debt, earnings of graduates, and the number of low-income students in attendance, The New York Times reports. The hope is that by 2018, federal financial aid will be linked to rankings: students at more highly-rated schools will receive larger federal grants and lower interest loans than those at lower ranked institutions. However, this measure will require new legislation.
The Washington Post reports that the new ranking system would also reward colleges and universities based on their value. Schools that keep their costs and level of student debt down are rewarded, giving them an incentive to keep tuition and other fees from rising year to year.
Obama acknowledged in a letter that his proposals would meet with a great deal of opposition, especially considering the U.S. tendency to treat colleges and universities as businesses rather than institutions of higher learning, “but it’s past time that more of our colleges work better for the students they exist to serve.”
Photo courtesy of White House